A Ransomed Grete

Title: A Ransomed Grete
Author: Chautona Havig
Series: Ever After Mysteries, book 9
Major Themes: Germany, Fairy Tales, Murder Mystery
Synopsis: When young Hans takes Grete, a little girl, to a chalet in the forest for safety but discovers that children are disappearing from there, how can he save himself and her—and figure out who really murdered the officer?

Because I will read anything that Chautona Havig writes, I signed up for a review copy of A Ransomed Grete as soon as I could. I knew that it was a fairytale-inspired mystery set in the 1930s in Nazi-controlled Europe. That means that parts of it are not very nice to read.

Austria, 1939. Kristallnacht has happened, and the Jews in the country are scared. Many of them can see what is coming and know, from what has already happened, that soon they, too, will disappear. As they make the agonizing decision to try to save their children’s lives, many hear of a chalet in the forest where a woman will protect the children from discovery and send them to safety in England.

Young Hans arrives at the chalet with a little girl in tow. He had found her at the train station and was told to take her with him. What he finds at the chalet, though, doesn’t seem to match what he has been told. The place feels ominous, and he finds evidence of children disappearing. Then, an officer appears—and is suddenly killed. Who did it, and why? How can he get himself and Greta out to safety before they, too, disappear?

To tell the truth, I was quite confused through a lot of this book. I believe that was intentional on the part of the author, and there were definitely some red herrings thrown in to confuse the mystery. Because I knew that the story is based on the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, I figured that the woman in the chalet must be on the “wrong” side, but it took a long time to figure out how and why.

While A Ransomed Grete will not likely ever be one of my favorites of Chautona Havig’s books, I like the way she ended it. Her note to the readers at the end is most of what made the book have value to me.

I received a review copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.

WARNING: A man is killed in chapter 1 and another one in chapter 14.

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