Title:	Death in Focus
	Author:	Anne Perry
	Published:	September 17, 2019, Ballantine Books
	No. of Pages:	320
	Cover Price:	$28.00 Hardcover, $14.99 Kindle

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Anne Perry is a well-known, bestselling author of historical fiction. She is known for her ceaseless historical research and her ability to catch the time-period so that readers feel they are living in the time. Twenty-eight year old Elena Standish is the new heroine in a series of the same name, and the novels take place in pre-World War II Europe when Hitler was rising to power. In the first installment of the series, Elena and her sister Margot are on holiday on the coast of Italy where Elena meets the love of her life, Ian, and suddenly decides to go home to London with him. Elena’s father is a foreign diplomat, and her Grandfather was once head of M16, so she has ties to the political goings-on of the day. Ian is also an agent, which she learns about later. On her train ride home, Ian is murdered, and Elena, with the help of a friend who seems to be there to keep her out of trouble, goes to Berlin to finish Ian’s mission. Elena is arrested and is accused of a murder that she didn’t commit; she escapes, but may not survive, since the Nazis are still after her.

Anne Perry’s writing is always good, and she is expert in telling a believable story. She is a master of developing her characters, and readers will feel they know them personally. While reading, and experiencing the suspense that builds throughout, readers will feel they are living in the time period and will feel what people actually felt during Hitler’s rise to power. Even readers who aren’t particularly interested in that time period will find themselves on the edges of their seats.

This first Elena Standish novel is excellent and will have readers anticipating the next installment. It includes some of the history that isn’t being taught in modern colleges, and, even though Elena is fictional, the background and historical information is factual and everyone can learn from this book, as well as be entertained with good writing, a good story, and good characters.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.