Books like 'The Secret of Magic'
Readers who enjoyed The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery 20th century military, war & conflict historical-fiction crime justice social-commentary legal war
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All the Broken Places by John Boyne
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsThe sequel to the phenomenal bestseller, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, this is John Boyne's latest novel for adults.1946. Three years after a cataclysmic event which tore their lives apart, a mother and daughter flee Poland for Paris, shame, and fear at their heels, not knowing how hard it is to escape your past... -
![Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson]()
Once We Were Brothers by Ronald H. Balson
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsThe gripping tale about two boys, once as close as brothers, who find themselves on opposite sides of the Holocaust.Elliot Rosenzweig, a respected civic leader and wealthy philanthropist, is attending a fundraiser when he is suddenly accosted and accused of being a former Nazi SS officer named Otto Piatek, the Butcher of Zamosc... -
![When We Were Innocent by Kate Hewitt]()
When We Were Innocent by Kate Hewitt
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“Dad, you have to tell me the truth. Are you who they say you are? Because I know you can’t be. I know you can’t possibly have done what they’re saying…”Libby Trent has worked hard to make a good life for herself. She has a happy, messy home in Virginia, full of family and laughter... -
![The Captains by W.E.B. Griffin]()
The Captains by W.E.B. Griffin
Rated: 4.37 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsIt was more than an incident. It was a deadly assault across the 38th parallel. It was the Korean War. In the fear and frenzy of battle, those who had served with heroism before were called again by America to man the trenches and sandbag bunkers...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![Mila 18 by Leon Uris]()
Mila 18 by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIt was a time of crisis, a time of tragedy and a time of transcendent courage and determination. Leon Uris's novel is set in the midst of the ghetto uprising that defied Nazi tyranny, as the Jews of Warsaw boldly met Wehrmacht tanks with homemade weapons and bare fists...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Secretary by Catherine Hokin]()
The Secretary by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsThe Tower House. Down a secluded path, hidden by overgrown vines, the crumbling villa echoes with memories. Of the family who laughed and sang there, until the Nazis tore them from their home. And of the next woman to walk its empty rooms, whose courage in the face of evil could alter the course of history…Germany 1940... -
![The Last Restaurant in Paris by Lily Graham]()
The Last Restaurant in Paris by Lily Graham
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsParis 1944. To save her people, she served the enemy.In enemy-occupied Paris, as the locals go to bed starving and defeated by the war, music and laughter spills through the door of a little restaurant, crowded with German soldiers. The owner Marianne moves on weary feet between its packed tables, carrying plates of steaming, wholesome food for the enemy officers...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure book female-mc -
![Unspeakable Prayers by John Ellsworth]()
Unspeakable Prayers by John Ellsworth
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsUNSPEAKABLE PRAYERS is the story of nineteen year-old Lodzi Ashstein taken to Treblinka in 1942 and forced by the Nazis to help destroy Jews. Watch a beaten and broken man survive against all odds. Later in life the captain of the SS Nazi guards is murdered. The Holocaust survivor Lodzi is charged with the murder and a trial ensues... -
![The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor]()
The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA heart-breaking, heart-warming historical novel of love and survival inspired by real resistance workers during World War II Austria, and the mysterious love letter that connects generations of Jewish families. For readers of The Nightingale, Lilac Girls, and Sarah's Key.Austria, 1938.Kristoff is a young apprentice to a master Jewish stamp engraver... -
![Rosa's Gold - A Story of Holocaust Echoes by Ray Kingfisher]()
Rosa's Gold - A Story of Holocaust Echoes by Ray Kingfisher
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNicole Sutton is a young girl with problems. A tragic car accident has taken away her brother, and ripped her parents' marriage apart. Together with her mother she moves to a new house, a new town, and a life she never wanted. In the dusty cellar of the house she stumbles upon a well-worn notebook – the scribbled war memoirs of Mac, an old soldier...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult book -
![Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Geoff Wilkes]()
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada, Geoff Wilkes
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsInspired by a true story, Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin is the gripping tale of an ordinary man's determination to defy the tyranny of Nazi rule. This Penguin Classics edition contains an afterword by Geoff Wilkes, as well as facsimiles of the original Gestapo file which inspired the novel. Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear... -
![The Girl from Berlin: A Novel by Ronald H. Balson]()
The Girl from Berlin: A Novel by Ronald H. Balson
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsRonald H. Balson's The Girl from Berlin is the winner of the Book Club category for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award. In this new novel, Liam and Catherine come to the aid of an old friend and are drawn into a property dispute in Tuscany that unearths long-buried secretsAn old friend calls Catherine Lockhart and Liam Taggart to his famous Italian restaurant to enlist their help... -
![EO-N by Dave Mason]()
EO-N by Dave Mason
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratings2019: Alison Wiley, a once-idealistic biotech CEO, is processing her new reality: she’s the last bud on the last branch of her family tree. On the heels of her mother’s illness and crushing death, she's pulled into a seventy-four year old mystery by a chance discovery on a Norwegian glacier. 1945: RCAF Squadron Leader Jack Barton flies combat missions over occupied Europe... -
![The Skipper's Dog Called Stalin by David Black]()
The Skipper's Dog Called Stalin by David Black
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSpring, 1941. France has fallen but the Free French naval forces are in no mood to surrender. Royal Navy Sub-Lieutenant Harry Gilmour is also ready for action, despite the horrors of his first taste of submarine warfare.When he is appointed as British Navy Liaison Officer aboard the Free French submarine Radegonde, he finds it anarchic, disorientating—and very French...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult -
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![Defending Britta Stein: A Novel by Ronald H. Balson]()
Defending Britta Stein: A Novel by Ronald H. Balson
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsOne of Newsweek's 20 New Books to Cozy Up With this FallDefending Britta Stein is a story of bravery, betrayal, and redemption—from Ronald H. Balson, the winner of the National Jewish Book AwardChicago, 2018: Ole Henryks, a popular restauranteur, is set to be honored by the Danish/American Association for his many civic and charitable contributions... -
![Beyond This Broken Sky by Siobhan Curham]()
Beyond This Broken Sky by Siobhan Curham
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratings1940, London: An unforgettable novel about the strength of the human spirit in the face of war and the remarkable women who put themselves in danger on the front lines during the Battle of Britain.As a volunteer for the ambulance service, Ruby has the dangerous task of driving along pitch-dark roads during the blackout... -
![I Saw Her That Night by Drago Jančar]()
I Saw Her That Night by Drago Jančar
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsI Saw Her That Night, a love story in time of war, is a novel about a few years in the life and mysterious disappearance of Veronika Zarnik, a young bourgeois woman from Ljubljana, sucked into the whirlwind of a turbulent period in history... -
![The Paris Secret by Lily Graham]()
The Paris Secret by Lily Graham
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOn the brink of the second world war, a beautiful Parisian bookshop hides a heartbreaking secret that will tear one family apart forever … The last time Valerie was in Paris, she was three-years-old, running from the Nazis, away from the only home she had ever known... -
![Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci]()
Conspiracy of Lies by Kathryn Gauci
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFrom the author of The Embroiderer comes a powerful account of one woman's struggle to balance her duty to her country and a love she knows will ultimately end in tragedy. 1940. With the Germans about to enter Paris, Claire Bouchard flees France for England. Two years later she is recruited by the Special Operations Executive and sent back into occupied France to work alongside the Resistance... -
![On the Wings of Hope by Ella Zeiss, Helen MacCormac]()
On the Wings of Hope by Ella Zeiss, Helen MacCormac
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAs World War II draws to a close, can two young people find love, hope—and freedom?February 1942: Terrifying reports of the Wehrmacht’s advance across the Soviet Union spread like wildfire, striking new fear into the already oppressed German families living there.Harri Pfeiffer, now sixteen, is summoned to the forced labour camp in Chelyabinsk...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille, Brian Murray]()
Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille, Brian Murray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHe is a good man, a brilliant corporate executive, an honest, handsome family man admired by men and desired by women. But a lifetime ago Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam. There the men under his command committed a murderous atrocity--and together swore never to tell the world what they had done. Now the press, army justice, and the events he tried to forget have caught up with Ben Tyson... -
![The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre]()
The Great Swindle by Pierre Lemaitre
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsOctober 1918: the war on the Western Front is all but over. Desperate for one last chance of promotion, the ambitious Lieutenant Henri d'Aulnay Pradelle sends two scouts over the top, and secretly shoots them in the back to incite his men to heroic action once more...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure -
![Pereira Declares: A Testimony by Antonio Tabucchi]()
Pereira Declares: A Testimony by Antonio Tabucchi
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsDr. Pereira is an aging, overweightjournalist who has failed to noticethe menacing cloud of fascism overSalazarist Portugal, until one day hemeets an aspiring young writer andanti-fascist. Breaking out of his apolitical torpor, Pereira reluctantly rises to heroism... -
![The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley]()
The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAn aristocratic French family, a legendary chteau, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire. La Cte dAzur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinires, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent chteau and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debtand almost as many questions . . -
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![The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw]()
The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe Young Lions is a vivid and classic novel that portrays the experiences of ordinary soldiers fighting World War II. Told from the points of view of a perceptive young Nazi, a jaded American film producer, and a shy Jewish boy just married to the love of his life, Shaw conveys, as no other novelist has since, the scope, confusion, and complexity of war... -
![The Girl from Vichy by Andie Newton]()
The Girl from Vichy by Andie Newton
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsShe's done running. Now she fights. 1942, occupied France.With the war raging in Europe, Adèle Ambeh dreams of a France that is free from the clutches of the Nazis. As the date of her marriage to a ruthless man draws closer, she only has one choice: she must run.Adèle flees to Lyon and seeks refuge at the Sisters of Notre Dame de la Compassion... -
![Brodeck by Philippe Claudel]()
Brodeck by Philippe Claudel
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSet in an unnamed time and place, Brodeck blends the familiar and unfamiliar, myth and history into a work of extraordinary power and resonance. Readers of J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Kafka will be captivated by Brodeck... -
![Beyond the Shadow of Night by Ray Kingfisher]()
Beyond the Shadow of Night by Ray Kingfisher
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn this epic tale of friendship and loss from the author of The Sugar Men, fate pushes childhood friends to opposite sides of a terrible war—but is forgiveness always possible? Ukraine, 1923. On a small farm, two boys are born within days of each other, both Ukrainian, one Jewish... -
![The King of Warsaw by Szczepan Twardoch]()
The King of Warsaw by Szczepan Twardoch
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA city ignited by hate. A man in thrall to power. The ferociously original award-winning bestseller by Poland’s literary phenomenon―his first to be translated into English.It’s 1937. Poland is about to catch fire.In the boxing ring, Jakub Szapiro commands respect, revered as a hero by the Jewish community... -
![The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean]()
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair MacLean
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn entire navy had tried to silence the guns of Navarone and failed. Full-scale attacks had been driven back. Now they were sending in just five men, each one a specialist in dealing death...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![Qb VII by Leon Uris]()
Qb VII by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn Queen’s Bench Courtroom Number Seven, famous author Abraham Cady stands trial. In his book The Holocaust—born of the terrible revelation that the Jadwiga Concentration Camp was the site of his family’s extermination—Cady shook the consciousness of the human race. He also named eminent surgeon Sir Adam Kelno as one of Jadwiga’s most sadistic inmate/doctors... -
![Invitation to Valhalla by Mike Whicker]()
Invitation to Valhalla by Mike Whicker
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsErika Lehmann. She is the Nazis' top spy. Code-named Lorelei, she is the English speaking daughter of Hitler's old comrade and a member of the Fuhrer's inner circle. She is beautiful, athletic, and clever--the epitome of Aryan womanhood. She'll stop at nothing to accomplish her mission, including masquerading as a Jew. Joe Mayer... -
![Shanghai Story: A WWII Drama Trilogy Book One by Alexa Kang]()
Shanghai Story: A WWII Drama Trilogy Book One by Alexa Kang
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA WWII saga in the heart of the world's most decadent city in 1936. Enter the Paris of the East, where one man and one woman strive to hold on to their dreams as the Communists rise and the shadow of Japan closes in. His country stood on the verge of a new beginning and the gate of hell... -
![Thief of Glory: A Novel by Sigmund Brouwer]()
Thief of Glory: A Novel by Sigmund Brouwer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Brouwer makes you live it....sharing each moment of an exotic and terrifying time and place in a gripping, personal way.” —Bodie and Brock Thoene, authors of Take this Cup A boy coming of age in a time of war… the love that inspires him to survive... -
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![Rachel's Legacy by Julie Thomas]()
Rachel's Legacy by Julie Thomas
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe much anticipated sequel to The Keeper of Secrets, following the fortunes of the Horowitz family from pre-war Berlin to the present. When Dr Kobi Voight is given a set of old letters by his mother he has no inkling that they will lead him around the world and deep into the tragic past of his family... -
![The Commandant's Daughter by Catherine Hokin]()
The Commandant's Daughter by Catherine Hokin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratings1933, Berlin. Ten-year-old Hanni Foss stands by her father’s side watching the torchlit procession to celebrate Adolf Hitler as Germany’s new leader. As the lights fade, she knows her safe and happy childhood is about to change forever. Practically overnight, the father she adores becomes unrecognisable, lost to his ruthless ambition to oversee an infamous concentration camp…Twelve years later... -
![The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer]()
The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsOn the heels of the international bestseller Only Time Will Tell, Jeffrey Archer picks up the sweeping story of the Clifton Chronicles.Only days before Britain declares war on Germany, Harry Clifton, hoping to escape the consequences of long-buried family secrets, and forced to accept that his desire to marry Emma Barrington will never be fulfilled, has joined the Merchant Navy... -
![Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle]()
Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFlorence, 1943. Two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio, find themselves surrounded by terror and death; and with Italy trapped under the heel of a brutal Nazi occupation, bands of Partisans rise up. Soon Isabella and Caterina will test their wits and deepest beliefs as never before. As the winter grinds on, they will be forced to make the most important decisions of their lives... -
![Sapphire Skies by Belinda Alexandra]()
Sapphire Skies by Belinda Alexandra
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA love bigger than a war. A beautiful woman lost. A mystery unsolved … until now. 2000: The wreckage of a downed WWII fighter plane is discovered in the forests near Russia’s Ukrainian border. The aircraft belonged to Natalya Azarova, ace pilot and pin-up girl for Soviet propaganda, but the question of her fate remains unanswered... -
![The One from the Other by Philip Kerr]()
The One from the Other by Philip Kerr
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPhilip Kerr’s Berlin Noir trilogy—featuring the tough, fast-talking, noirish detective Bernie Gunther—is a publishing phenomenon that continues to win new fans more than fifteen years after its initial publication. Kerr has brought Bernie back in a highly anticipated thriller that will delight fans of the original books and attract new attention to the backlist...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction politics social-commentary war ww2 20th-century -
![Dark Star by Alan Furst]()
Dark Star by Alan Furst
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe acclaimed author of Night Soldiers offers a dramatic and exciting spy thriller of Eastern Europe on the brink of World War II. In the back alleys and glittering salons of Europe, there is a thin line between survival and betrayal, as Soviet NKVD agents and the Nazi Gestapo confront each other in a brilliant duel of espionage. Like watching Casablanca for the first time.--Time...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory]()
The Rabbit Girls by Anna Ellory
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsBerlin, 1989. As the wall between East and West falls, Miriam Winter cares for her dying father, Henryk. When he cries out for someone named Frieda – and Miriam discovers an Auschwitz tattoo hidden under his watch strap – Henryk’s secret history begins to unravel...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos, Cassandra Campbell]()
The Girl They Left Behind by Roxanne Veletzos, Cassandra Campbell
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA sweeping family saga and love story that offers a vivid and unique portrayal of life in war-torn 1941 Bucharest and life behind the Iron Curtain during the Soviet Union occupation—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls and Sarah’s Key.On a freezing night in January 1941, a little Jewish girl is found on the steps of an apartment building in Bucharest...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction literary-fiction politics war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![The Phantom Patrol by James R. Benn]()
The Phantom Patrol by James R. Benn
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the nineteenth installment of James R. Benn’s acclaimed WWII mystery series, an investigation into a secret gang of Nazi-affiliated art thieves in post-Liberation Paris leads Billy Boyle and his comrades into the catastrophic Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944... -
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![Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray]()
Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn this thriller set on the battlefields of the Somme after the end of World War I, a woman investigates the disappearance of her fiancé.The Great War has ended, but for Amy Vanneck there is no peace. Her fiancé, Edward Haslam, a lieutenant in the 7th Manchesters, is missing, presumed dead. Amy travels to the desolate battlefields of northern France to learn his fate and recover his body... -
![The Garden of Angels by David Hewson]()
The Garden of Angels by David Hewson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAt his beloved Nonno Paolo's deathbed, fifteen-year-old Nico receives a gift that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943. The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice's Grand Canal...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction war ww2 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Daddy by Loup Durand]()
Daddy by Loup Durand
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWho has the key to a $350 million fortune the Nazis have sent their most brilliant operative to find? Thomas, an 11-year old boy with the mind of a genius, the cunning of a fox, and the chance of a snowball in Hell to escape...unless he is helped by one man. An American who doesn't even know he exists. A man he calls Daddy... -
![Written on the Wind by Judith Pella]()
Written on the Wind by Judith Pella
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsBook 1 of the Daughters of Fortune series. Cameron Hayes??? determination to distance herself from her famous father and establish herself as a journalist finds her back in her beloved Russia, now threatened by Hitler's greed. In Moscow she meets Dr. Alex Rostov, a once-prominent US surgeon who has been forced to return to his Russian homeland...Categorized as:
drama historical-fiction politics social-commentary war ww2 20th-century action-adventure -
![A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan]()
A Bakery in Paris by Aimie K. Runyan
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the author of The School for German Brides, this captivating historical novel set in nineteenth-century and post-World War II Paris follows two fierce women of the same family, generations apart, who find that their futures lie in the four walls of a simple bakery in a tiny corner of Montmartre. 1870: The Prussians are at the city gates, intent to starve Paris into submission... -
![The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee]()
The Investigation by Jung-Myung Lee
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWatanbe Yuichi, a young guard with a passion for reading, is ordered to investigate a murder. The victim, Sugiyama, also a guard, was feared and despised throughout the prison and inquiries have barely begun when a powerful inmate confesses...
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