Book Review: Passport to Spy by Nancy Cole Silverman (Kat Lawson #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Kat in a fun, can’t but it down adventure

Cons: I don’t spy any cons

The Bottom Line:

Hunting stolen art

First, Kat must learn who to trust

Great second entry

Tracking Stolen Art in Germany

I was very curious where Nancy Cole Silverman was going to go with her new Kat Lawson Mystery series, so I was eager to pick up Passport to Spy, the second book.  I was quickly caught up in the story.

This book is set in December 1999.  Kat is a reporter who lost her job working at a newspaper, but she’s taken on a new one with Travel International, a magazine that will send Kat out to cover various locations for them.  However, the magazine is actually a front for a division of the FBI.

Her first assignment is to cover the Christmas festivities in Munich, Germany, and use that as an excuse to get close to Hans von Hausmann, the owner of a local art museum.  The FBI believes that he knows the location of a horde of paintings stolen and hidden since World War II.  It’s a delicate operation with international implication.

After a rough start, Kat is able to make contact with Hans.  But as she begins to get close to him, she develops more questions than she gets answers.  Does he know where these paintings are located?  Will she find them?  How much danger is she in?

Quite obviously, this book doesn’t have the typical plot of a mystery I would read.  Honestly, I found that to be a lot of fun.  The story was strong, and I always had a hard time putting the book down when real life interfered with my reading.  Kat is dealing with a bunch of people she does not know, leading her to wonder who she can trust and who is using or lying to her.  I loved trying to unravel all of that with her.  Along the way, there is plenty of danger, and a third act that just keeps upping the suspense.

Besides Kat, there are really only two characters who come back from the first book.  It was great to see them again, and I enjoyed their appearances.  Everyone else is new.  As I already said, they have their own agendas that Kat must figure out, but they all come across as real.

The Christmas setting adds some fun to the plot, at least for this Christmas lover.  It’s a wonderful backdrop to the action.  Honestly, I felt like I was in Germany with Kat as the story unfolded, shivering from the cold more than once.  Yes, I really am a wimp when it comes to cold weather.

The book ends with the true history behind the story.  It’s fun to see how fact was used in this novel and makes it all too real, sadly.

Passport to Spy will have you hooked from the beginning.  I hope that Kat’s career change is a long lasting one because I can’t wait to travel with her for her next assignment.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.