Cirrus@Austlit

'Lena, the lost child...

'Found wandering the streets of wartime Paris. No-one knows her real name or where she came from.

'Australia in the 'Swinging Sixties.'

'Lena is working in the Melbourne Law Courts. One day in court she hears a man's voice. A voice that sounds hauntingly familiar. A voice that sends icy chills down her spine. Is it possible that this man has something to do with her unknowable past?

'Lena embarks on a search for more. A newspaper story. A history. A connection. And slowly, layer by layer, the past is peeled away, revealing a picture of evil involving thousands of lives and touching on Lena's own personal tragedy.

'The Butterfly Enigma ranges from the submarine-patrolled sea lanes of the Baltic to the courtrooms of mid-sixties Australia, to the island of Crete, to Paris, Tel Aviv, and Rio de Janeiro. A gripping story of one young woman's search for her lost past. Above all, her passionate and overwhelming desire for justice and retribution.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'My real name is Valentine de Vaillant. I once had a brother, Florian. He's now dead. So too are my mother and father. I live with my grand-mere in the Villa Mimosa. A German officer is billeted with us. Most likely he suspects I'm in the Resistance. He could report me to the Gestapo at any time. Every day I live in fear of something happening to my friend Marguerite and her brother Aleksander.

'France 1943. Life under the German Occupation has become even more dangerous for those in the Resistance. For Valli, living under the same roof as the enemy, there is now an added danger. The more she comes to know Maximilian von Stahlmann, the harder it becomes to resist her growing feelings for him.

'When her dearest friend, Marguerite, is arrested, Valli faces her most perilous situation yet. Time is running out. In order to save her friend, she must risk everything. Be willing to do whatever it takes. Even if it means putting her own life in jeopardy. But for Valli, the price of freedom is never too high.' (Publication summary)

'The story of Valentine de Vaillant, known as Valli, stretches from the beaches of Australia to the boulevards of pre-war Paris, through the German Blitzkrieg and the long dark years of the occupation of France.

'From the moment Valli joins a Resistance group in Lyon, she engages in a series of dangerous clandestine activities that at any moment could lead to arrest by the dreaded Gestapo. When she finds herself becoming attracted to a German officer, her world is thrown into turmoil.

'Resisting the Enemy is a thrilling story of conflict, danger and passion, and a love between enemies that seems impossibly doomed. It is also about music and opera, the enduring bonds of friendship, and the life and death choices one makes in a time of war.' (Publication summary)