Vital Lies

In Cold War Germany in the 1980s, teenager Aubrey Sentro is an entry-level intelligence operative for the CIA. When she discovers that an entire CIA unit’s cover is about to be blown, she sacrifices herself to give them time to escape. She is captured and handed over to former Stasi agent Günter Witt, who beats, rapes, and impregnates her. Often drugged, she is told by her captors that the baby was stillborn. Then the Berlin Wall falls, and the Cold War is over. Sentro returns home to her family but with memory loss and ongoing PTSD. Thirty years later, Witt reappears in connection with a series of bombings in Europe. Meanwhile, a woman claiming to be Aubrey’s daughter also surfaces with deadly intent. When Aubrey and her daughter are drawn into the search for answers and put in peril, Aubrey must recover the long-buried truth about her past. This is Pyne’s second book (after Water Memory) in the “Sentro” series. Narrator Christina Traister skillfully presents the many voices and accents necessary to make the story come alive.