The German Heiress

For fans of The Alice Network, The Women in the Castle and other edgy, pacy WWII-era novels comes a historical debut about a German woman trying to outrun her past.

Clara Falkenberg, once Germany’s most eligible and lauded heiress, earned the nickname “the Iron Fräulein” during World War II for her role operating her family’s ironworks empire. It’s been nearly two years since the war ended and she’s now left with nothing but a false identification card and a series of burning questions about the dark secrets of her family’s past. With nowhere else to run to, she decides to come out of hiding and return home to Essen and take refuge with her dear friend, Elisa.

Narrowly escaping a near-disastrous interrogation by a British officer who’s hell-bent on arresting her for war crimes, she arrives in Essen to discover the city in ruins, and Elisa missing. Alone and in fear of what the future holds, she sets out to find Elisa and reveal the truth of her family.

As Clara begins tracking down Elisa, she encounters Jakob Relling, a charismatic young man working on the black market, who, for his own reasons, is also searching for Elisa. Clara and Jakob soon discover how they might help each other survive in this world of unrest—as long as they can stay ahead of the British officer determined to make Clara answer for her family’s complicity in the Nazi regime.

 Propulsive, meticulously researched, and action-fueled, The German Heiress is a mesmerizing page-turner filled with vivid characters and a dramatically nuanced portrait of post-war Germany. In this riveting story of courage and morality, Anika Scott deftly shines the spotlight on the often-overlooked perspective of Germans who were caught in the crossfire of the Nazi regime and had nowhere to turn.