The Judgement of Stars is the sixth book in Jane Thynne’s Clara Vine noir thriller series, set in Germany and following a chronology from Black Roses, set in the early 1930s, to The Judgement of Stars in 1942. Clearly, there is more to come!
Clara Vine, half-English, half-German and living in Berlin, has been recruited to spy for MI6 – ‘a role that never let up, in a theatre she could not escape.’ Being a glamorous and upper-class actress working for the famous UFA Studios at Babelsberg, she is perfectly placed to act the part and pass intelligence back to London as she mingles within the higher echelons of Nazi society. The kicker, however, is that she is Jewish on her mother’s side and has Jewish cousins still living in Germany – both facts she must keep hidden if she is to survive. The peril of her situation is evident on every page, as is the position of Germany itself in 1942: Hitler has invaded Russia, the Americans have recently come into the war, and the Nazi leadership is beginning to fall out. Suspicion is everywhere. Thynne brilliantly paints a picture of a society under threat.
So already you have a mise en scène racing towards a historical conclusion that makes the reader – with the ringside seat Thynne provides – wanting to know more.
The plot revolves around a mission Clara is given by her MI6 handler to track down – and kill – an errant British spy named Victor Stern, who has been unmasked as a double agent for the Russians. Why her? Because she once knew him as a lover. Also running through the book is the theme of how culture was co-opted by Goebbels – who we get to meet – to serve the goals of National Socialist propaganda, including the quasi-comical use of astrologers to support the Nazi war effort.
Beyond this gripping storyline, what sets the book apart – indeed, the whole series – is the fascinating period detail which Thynne weaves into the story. From a detailed description of Berlin’s famous pleasure dome, the Haus Vaterland, to the scene where the girls from the Frauen Kolonialschule in Rendsburg race down to the banks of the Kaiser Wilhelm-Kanal to wave at passing warships, the authentic background to the action is thoroughly researched and shows Thynne’s mastery of place and period.
The lens she uses – giving us a close-up view of the squabbling wives of the Nazi leaders – is fresh and original. Though many of these pen-portraits are brief, they provide a telling insight into the tensions that seeth beneath the surface. The only character I would like to have seen more of is the astonishing Hedy Kiesler (who became Hollywood’s Hedy Lamarr). Plenty has been written about her, both in fiction and non-fiction, but given her towering personality and the part she plays in a key episode of Thynne’s story, it would have been good to have developed her relationship with Clara further. Perhaps Clara will wind up in Hollywood in book 8 or 9!
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to following what happens next to Clara Vine as she navigates the disintegration of Nazi Germany.
James Dunford Wood is a writer and the author of The Big Little War.
Jane Thynne is a bestselling writer and the author of The Judgement of Stars, the latest in the Clara Vine series which was released in May 2025.
