A thrilling and twisting tale set in a dark and fateful time in history, this story by a renowned fantasy writer hints at what might have happened had Hitler been derailed early on by scandal

"So we have blood and a supposed body. With all the death and riots in Munich, you believed this to be important?" The sergeant licked his lips, swallowed, and then said, "The dead girl, sir. The dead girl, she is Herr Hitler's niece."

This much is true: Hitler was obsessed with his young niece, Geli Raubal. On September 19th, 1931, two years before he came to power, Geli was found dead of a gunshot wound in Hitler's apartment in an exclusive area of Munich. Her death was ruled a suicide, but the suspicion of murder remained long after she had been laid to rest. It is 1972, and Annie Pohlmann, a young American student, arrives in Germany to interview retired detective Fritz Stecher, who headed the original investigation. She gets more than she bargained for when Stecher reveals the whole story of a case that not only nearly killed him, but almost changed the course of history.