MY THOUGHTS AND BOOK REVIEW
Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem is an amazing historical fiction novel set in the period of the Great Depression and WW1, based on true events and a character cast that is attractive to the readers. At the MGM studios, in 1933, 21-year-old single mother Liesl Weiss, an American with German heritage, is fired from her Stenographer job by her boss Gary Perl due to Bankruptcy. This just meant to Liesl that nobody is safe from the unemployment line. After three weeks without a paycheck and security, Liesl was feeling insecure with her two children, mother, and brother Fritz to support. Her husband one day went to work and never came back. Now, her only option is to work with Leon Lewis and Mysterious Agent Thirteen to spy on her friends and neighbors in her German American Community for thirty dollars a week. Mrs. Weiss is a Christian, Courageous, and had Morals and Integrity - and she is a Spy!
In this novel, the Jewish lawyer Leon Lewis, who had served in the great war, and was part of a secret intelligence operation, returned to Chicago to start his law firm and moved to Los Angeles. People worried about unemployment, rising rent, and the new German Chancellor - Adolf Hitler. It was a bad situation in Germany. Leon believed that, during this period in time 1929- 1933, there were also the War relief efforts, the Spanish flu, and the collapse of Germany where the country was called to pay loans to bankers in New York, as America lent the money it needed to rebuild the country. The author has captured very well in the novel events that have happened. The Germans started to listen to Adolf Hitler as they were angry, hungry, and desperate. Lewis wanted to bring the ugly truth behind the Nationalist Socialists openly.
Weiss was left with questions not knowing what to believe that the Nazis are coming from Germany to Los Angeles? Is it true? Are they taking over America? Whether the German government was sending their people to Los Angeles to set up Hitler's cell? In a German town? Her own Neighborhood? This is not going to stop here -------- The read gets interesting when Mrs, Leisl Weiss volunteers a position at the New Friends of Germany office- for a woman named Thekla Schwinn and her husband.
A must-read if you are a historical fiction book lover. Thanks to Stephanie Landsem, Netgalley, and Tyndale Publishers for an advance copy for my honest review.
Publisher : Tyndale House Publishers (March 7, 2023)- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
Hashtag: #Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem #NetGalley #Tyndale House Publishers
BOOK COVER: “What I am looking for―what I desperately need, Mrs. Weiss―is a spy.”
Adolf Hitler is still a distant rumble on the horizon, but a Jewish spymaster and his courageous spies uncover a storm of Nazi terror in their own backyard.
In the summer of 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler is the new and powerful anti-Semitic chancellor of Germany. But in Los Angeles, no-nonsense secretary Liesl Weiss has concerns much closer to home. The Great Depression is tightening its grip and Liesl is the sole supporter of two children, an opinionated mother, and a troubled brother.
Leon Lewis is a Jewish lawyer who has watched Adolf Hitler’s rise to power―and the increase in anti-Semitism in America―with growing alarm. He believes Nazi agents are working to seize control of Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known. The trouble is, authorities scoff at his dire warnings.
When Liesl loses her job at MGM, her only choice is to work with Leon Lewis and the mysterious Agent Thirteen to spy on her friends and neighbors in her German American community. What Leon Lewis and his spies find is more chilling―and more dangerous―than any of them suspected.
Code Name Edelweiss is based on a true story, unknown until recent years: How a lone Jewish lawyer and a handful of amateur spies discovered and foiled Adolf Hitler’s plan to take over Hollywood.
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