Jane Thynne chats to Paul Burke about new Clara Vine spy novel THE JUDGEMENT OF STARS, Nazi Astrology, the German Film industry, Hedy Lamarr, humour in the darkest moments.

The Judgement of Stars Berlin, 1942. Clara Vine, the Anglo-German actress, is working undercover in Germany as an agent of British intelligence. During a hiatus in the filming of Goebbels’ latest propaganda film, the Sinking of the Titanic, she is covertly approached and asked to track down an errant British spy called Victor Stern.
Stern is a physicist, feared to be passing vital secrets to the enemy. He also happens to be Clara’s former lover, who she met in Vienna at the home of the actress, Hedy Lamarr.
As Clara hunts for Stern, however, she finds herself the subject of a blackmail plot from a young woman at the Propaganda ministry, Gisela Vogel, who knows of Clara’s Jewish heritage.
She faces a race against time to find the missing agent before Goebbels learns of her true identity.
Clara's search takes her to Hamburg and a meeting with the Third Reich’s favourite astrologer, who foretells dramatic news about her future.
But even if Clara finds her former lover, does she have it within herself to kill him?

Appointment in Paris 

Jane Thynne is a novelist journalist and broadcaster. She has worked at the Sunday times, the Daily Telegraph and the BBC, among others. She is the author of The Clara Vine series of wartime espionage thrillers and the Fox and Fry novels. She has also written two acclaimed dystopian novels, Widowland and Queen High, under the name CJ Carey. She lives in London.

RECOMMENDATIONS & talking points - Lawrence Rees, Adam Zamoyski, Uwe Neumahr The Writer's Castle, The Passenger Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, Simon Schema The Road to Auschwitz (documentary), Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther novels.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out 2026.

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