An interesting,tense read set in post world war 2 germany. It's a gripping read with a well drawn characters. It was an atmospheric read that held my interest.

A really good historical fiction book. The story is a page turner which had me gripped the whole way through. It is a fascinating read about fighting for survival in post World War 2 Germany. So many crimes were committed against humanity and a lot of people have secrets to hide.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book is set in Germany following ww2 during the Allied occupation. It tells the story of Clara who is desperately trying to find her best friend Elisa. Problem is she’s a wanted war criminal. The story is detailed and well told, exploring the nuances of right and wrong and of what people will do in order to survive. Her relationship with Jakob is by far the best in the book and brings some much needed light relief as the story gets pretty dark in places. I definitely cared about Clara but I also found her frustrating in that she acts with a lack of consistency, she is best when interacting with other characters, the only weak point in a otherwise very enjoyable book.

Loved reading this, the setting is an era I've long had an interest in, and the author has created an unusual and tense read that keeps you turning pages until the end. A great book.

A story sympathetically told, horrifyingly convincing and totally compelling. Thrown in at the deep end from the beginning, there is no concept whatsoever of the characters or their history but then the author agonisingly drip feeds us information right up to the conclusion by which point I felt I knew the characters inside out. As the story folds I experienced the anguish, the tension, the horrors and emotions of post war Germany and Clara, with her split loyalties and privileged background grew with each chapter, she and Jakob inevitably being drawn together by the atrocities of war. A story that kept me engrossed from start to finish. I loved it.

This novel set in the period following the Second World War begins interestingly enough and gathers momentum as the main character attempts to evade capture as a war criminal. Scott's description and the inclusion of the other main characters enables the reader to become involved and we want to see her succeed in finding her friend.
Although it was necessary to revisit places from her earlier life in her quest it sometimes niggled me that someone so desperate to evade capture was sometimes quite so careless and hence so easily captured and re-captured. But, then again, that is wat provides the action and tension here.
Generally, a historical novel well worth the read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hutchinson (Penguin Random House) for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book and found it interesting and challenging to read. Although a story of fiction it portrays an environment of fear, and survival at the end of the second world war. It is set in an industrial area of Germany. It tells the story of a young women who during the war had tried to make the lives of those working in camps easier.alongside keeping herself in favour with the the Reich. Her journey at the end of the war tells of her attempt to find her closest friend and her son. The story also touches on her family and reveals a shocking secret.

I felt the author had worked hard at crafting her characters and quite often it was possible to sense the fear and deprivation that existed at the time. It kept me fully captivated until the end and although a work of fiction history suggests that there may well have been a lot of similarity to the main tenet of the story.

A fantastic historical thriller with just a touch of romance, full of intrigue and fully relatable characters. Read in one sitting

Set in Germany after the war, during the Allied occupation Clara is desperately trying to find her best friend Elisa and dodge the English military. She is a wanted war criminal after all, the Iron Fraulien. Daughter of a Nazi manufacturing family and a propaganda darling.
Returning to her home time she finds help in the form of crippled former soldier and now black marketeer Jakob. He believes her motives during the war were not as clear cut as the English believe.
This is a classic cat and mouse chase mixed with post war survival. It's an interesting change to have the German perspective of post war circumstances. I would have liked less to-ing and fro-ing from the characters. Clara seems to go backwards and forwards not being caught on obvious places for quite a while. However the very unlikely friendship she develops with Jakob is a welcome light in the story as most of the characters are complicated and duplicitous.

An unusual and tense read.

The point of view makes it stand out and the author has done a great job in writing this to keep you engrossed.

Germany 1946. A country coming to terms with a decade of evil, with a lost war, with deprivation and hunger, with occupation. Many citizens have secrets to hide, even if their guilt is just looking the other way, but some have culpability for real, serious crimes, and the forces occupying their destroyed country are determined to root them out. People like Clara Falkenberg, the Iron Maiden, Nazi poster girl who ran factories manned with slave labour.

British officer Fenshaw is on a mission to find Clara and see her brought to justice, tracking her down to a town far from her home city of Essen, living under an assumed name. But Clara has secrets of her own, and she's not prepared to submit. Her flight takes her back to her ruined home city, to a black marketeer who just wants to provide for his young sisters and to her best friend's son.

Finding Clara is a book about secrets, the kind that tear families apart, the kinds that risk lives and the secrets we hide from and about ourselves. Nothing is as it seems in this twisty, dark expose of life in post war Germany. Fascinating, well researched and beautifully written this is a very readable look at a little talked about time in history and the burden of collective guilt.

It is 1946, the Allies are occupying Berlin, and Clara Falkenberg, heiress to a industrial empire, is trying to evade capture. She is also attempting to come to terms with her guilt, but that's by no means a simple equation. Collaboration was the price of survival yet, at considerable personal risk, she endeavoured to help some of the foreign workers who were forced into slavery in her factories. Nevertheless, those efforts pale into insignificance beside her contribution to the Nazi war effort.

The perspective – that of a prominent civilian strongly associated with the Nazi regime – is not one we're used to encountering and the moral ambiguities involved offer wonderful opportunities for characterization. For me, however, those opportunities are never fully realised because the focus of the novel gets diverted into a slightly contrived sub plot about Clara's struggle to discover the fate of her best friend, Elisa, and Elisa's son, Willy, whose lives are bound up with the history of her family in ways she does not completely understand. As a result, the dénouement, when it arrives, seems to owe a little too much to plot-mechanics and not quite enough to the truth of the character,.

An interesting story, which vividly brought to life the confusion of life in, and the utter devastation of post-war Germany. I found it difficult to warm to Clara, which is probably intentional, as she is such an ambiguous character. However, this meant that I didn't really care what happened to her, although other characters were much more sympathetic. A good, and unusual read though.

i have loved this book so much! i was tensed while reading it anticipating the end.
great historical novel set from a different point of view - german side and their role and choice during the second world war. strongly recommend it!

I choose to read this book as I have a grandaughter who is named 'Clara'. I am glad I did although it was not an easy or leisurely read! An unusual book I would say coming from a different angle. I couldn't decide if I liked Clara or not but then that is real life isn't it, we rarely meet people who are wholly lovely or absolutely awful. Clara was born into a certain set of circumstances and she had to make of them what she could. Sitting on this side of the 20thC we see things in a certain way but who is to say how we would behave given different circumstances. All in all this book is clever and thought provoking but not 'nice' or relaxing! Well done to Anika for doing a great job in writing and keep it up.

'Enjoyed' is a odd word when the subject matter is so sad, but I did enjoy this one. I really liked the characters; how they were well-rounded and nuanced, leaving you thinking about who was good and who was bad at such a messed-up time. It's also an interesting angle: there are a lot of second world war/Nazi/holocaust books around so it was good to read something with a different focus.

I would recommend this for A Level students, as the narrative is interesting and a good step into Adult Fiction. Good narrative structure and characters.

One of this book's many assets is the unusual story. Set in a Germany struggling to recover from a devastating war,it reminds the reader that recovery there was a complex business. Family loyalties had been strained,secrets hidden,lives damaged. We tend not to sympathise with German people's problems but this book is a timely reminder. The lead character,Clara,is very carefully and believably created. The reader is kept guessing as to her eventual fate given that her willingness to go along with the Nazis to benefit her workers has put her in a perilous position. This work is fiction but it reads with the authenticity and assuredness of fact. It is very well written too.

I love finding new authors with their new books. This time it was the turn of Anika Scott.

The plot is about Finding Clara, a war criminal after being left in charge of an industrial iron works. She is looked at as not looking after her workforce and using prisoners badly. In fact she did the best she could considering a woman was in charge.

Although the title is Finding Clara, the narrative is actually from Clara's aspect. It was more Finding Elisa her best friend. Clara wants to return to Essen to meet up with Elisa and her son. It drastically doesnt go to plan with some adventure and some home truths to face, Clara's story is a good one.

The description of the area sounds and feels realistic and i can feel the atmosphere of the mine tunnels and the ruins of the many homes caught up in the bombardments of Essen and Germany in a whole.

Quite an enjoyable adventure with Clara on some sad moments, heart breaking in fact but with a good ending.

Go on. Give it a try, you'll enjoy it too!