Around the Fire New Book Release Spotlight with Marian Exall.

DAUGHTERS OF RIGA
by
Marian Exall
Historical Fiction
​WWII
February 28, 2024
About
As World War II sweeps over Europe, nine-year-old Danielle Loesseps escapes from Latvia under the protection of the Dutch consul. Her mother, the consul’s secretary, is left behind at the end of a momentous year which sees a heroic scheme to save refugees from the Nazis, the blossoming of a secret love, and an unhappy woman’s revenge.
The consul’s young daughter Berta Vandercam also grows up in the shadow of the war and strives to understand why her father never speaks about their time in Riga.
Memories of the Riga consulate and questions about what happened there haunt the survivors as they remake their lives in the postwar world.

www.amazon.com/Daughters-Riga-Marian-Exall-ebook/dp/B0CQ8WNHFL
www.barnesandnoble.com/w/book/1144484609

Inspiration for the story.
"I was inspired to write "Daughters of Riga" after meeting Edith Zwartendijk. Edith was twelve years old in 1940 when her father Jan saved the lives of 2,300 Jewish refugees as the Dutch consul in Kaunas, Lithuania. She remembers him working late into the night writing visas to Curacao and other far away Dutch colonies. He never spoke about his wartime activities, and his heroism went unrecognized during his lifetime. I wrote "Daughters of Riga" to honor Edith and Jan, and all the other true stories of everyday heroism and resilience from World War II—stories that will now, eighty years on, remain untold."
From the author, Heat level: PG
About the author.
​Marian Exall is an award-winning author of mysteries and historical fiction. She grew up in England, and lived in France and Belgium before emigrating to the United States where she raised a family and pursued a career as a lawyer. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest and devotes herself to writing.
Her historical novel "Daughters of Riga" will be released by the Wild Rose Press on February 28. "Daughters of Riga" won the CIBA Hemingway award for wartime fiction. Marian has also published three Sarah McKinney mysteries. The second and third books in the series (A Dangerous Descent and A Splintered Step) won CIBA Clue Awards for international mystery. 
A Splintered Step was also a semi-finalist in Screencraft’s Cinematic Books competition.  
As well as the Sarah McKinney series, Marian has published a romantic novelette set in Victorian Yorkshire and titled "The Elgin Letters."
Marian’s work has been published in anthologies: Memory into Memoir, Whatcom Writes, The Kumquat Challenge and So Much Depends Upon…. Her memoir An Azure Year won the 2017 Solas Award for Best Travel Writing in the travel + food category.
www.facebook.com/mysterymarianexall
www.marianexall.com/