The City of Shadows (Stefan Gillespie 1) (utgåvan 2012)

Set in the 1930s, this mystery reveals much about the city of Danzig at that time. The city was created after WWI as part of the terms of the Treaty of Versaille. The city-state included Danzig plus about 200 villages and towns in the surrounding area. The area was inhabited primarily by Germans but was cut off from Germany to give Poland a large seaport. It was overseen by the League of Nations, a fledgling organization at the time.

Much of the action in the story takes place in Dublin but Detective Stefan Gillespie traces the origins to Danzig. In his hunt for a missing woman and for the killers of a man and a woman found in Dublin mountains, Gillespie falls for the friend of the missing woman.

It becomes clear that the so-called "free city" is becoming less and less free, as Nazi forces grow in influence there. The danger reaches out, trying to engulf the detective and his new love interest. ( )