Tessa Harris

The Paris Notebook is about a secret. It's a secret that might be big enough to destroy Adolf Hitler's reputation. The story takes place in 1939 Germany with Hitler's former psychiatrist Ernst Viktor undertaking the publication of his patient notes in order to stop Hitler. Dr. Viktor treated Hitler during WWI when he suffered from hysterical blindness. I found this angle on WWII to be amusing, believing it to be fiction. It isn't.

The publisher's summary: When Katja Heinz secures a job as a show more typist at Doctor Viktor’s clinic, she doesn’t expect to be copying top secret medical records from a notebook. At the end of the first world war, Doctor Viktor treated soldiers for psychological disorders. One of the patients was none other than Adolf Hitler. The notes in his possession declare Hitler unfit for office – a secret that could destroy the Führer’s reputation, and change the course of the war if exposed. With the notebook hidden in her hat box, Katja and Doctor Viktor travel to Paris. Seeking refuge in the Shakespeare and Company bookshop, they hope to find a publisher brave enough to print the controversial script. Katja is being watched though. Nazi spies in Paris have discovered her plan. They will stop at nothing to destroy the notebook and silence those who know of the secret hidden inside.

I loved this novel. It is a riveting story with plenty of tension from the first pages. You can feel the fear among Katja and Dr. Viktor as they prepare the transcribed copy of the doctor's patient notes as well as keeping the manuscript hidden. Their fears that the Nazi's would find out what they were doing were appropriate. They were surrounded by Nazi sympathizers who were watching them closely. The plot premise is that if Hitler's psychiatric records were published, he would not be able to remain in control of Germany. I am not sure whether I believe this premise since Hitler governed by fear. I can appreciate, though, that the characters believed this to be true. They were living in desperate times.

The setting for the story was Hamburg and Paris. The characters lived and worked in Hamburg but traveled to Paris several times to find a publisher. Every move they made in Paris was more suspenseful than their movements in Hamburg. I think that their train travel was the most suspenseful part of the story though. The Gestapo checked every train car looking for Jewish travelers as well as suspicious Germans before the trains left Germany. Katja was Jewish but this fact was a secret from the other characters. There were alot of twists and turns in the story that added to the suspense factor.
The Author's Note at the conclusion of the book tells the reader what part of the novel is based on truth and what part is fiction. I was astonished to find out that Lance Corporal Hitler was treated for a psychiatric disorder after a gas attack during WWI by Dr. Edmund Forster. Forster wanted to publish Hitler's medical records because he was troubled by his former patient's rise to power. Forster is believed to have passed them on to a group of anti-fascist German writers in 1933. One of them is Ernst Weiss who wrote a novel in 1938 called The Eyewitness. It was not published until the 1960s and it is believed that Dr. Forster's notes are the basis for the novel.

The Paris Notebook is definitely a must read! show less

I love historical fiction and always enjoy it when an author approaches an event or period from a different perspective, and Tessa Harris certainly did this in "The Paris Notebook". Not only did it have a unique plot but it was also fast-paced, compelling and well-researched.

The story focuses on a notebook that held detailed mental health records of a patient Dr Viktor treated at the end of WWI, stating that the patient was not capable of office. Gradually, the reader discovers that the show more information is about Adolf Hitler.

Now WWII is knocking on the doorstep and Katja finds herself employed as Dr Viktor's personal assistant. One of her jobs is to type up the notebook, and she soon discovers that both she and her employer are in grave danger.

Katja's bravery was truly amazing as she typed up the information in the notebook then kept it safe as she took it to Paris. Her anxiety and fears were palpable, and I was on the edge of my seat, concerned for her and Dr Viktor's safety. I loved that she was an inspiring character who willingly risked her life on several occasions. Her determination and inner strength was admirable.

"The Paris Notebook" was an exciting, beautifully written read full of danger, suspense, twists and turns and a sweet romance, and gave me a lot to think about as I read it. A wonderful novel. show less

What should have been a really good historical mystery was just a mess - melodramatic and too reliant on coincidence and unseen action never hinted at until it became necessary to tie up the story. Add to that a simpering female with whom the protagonist instantly falls in love for no apparent reason other than she simpers and holes in the mystery and resolution you large enough to drive a truck through, and I'm not really sure why I even finished listening to all 9 hours. And yet... the show more setting and idea (18th century England and the early study of forensics) are intriguing enough that I'm actually considering reading the second in the series. show less

As soon as I saw the ridiculously attractive cover-art and intruiging title, I couldn't wait to tear into the story. To my disappointment, I found I really shouldn't have judged this one by its cover.

The story takes place in England in the late Georgian period--about twenty or thirty years before Jane Austen's time. The main character, a surgeon from Philadelphia, is brought into the case of a suspicious death by the beautiful Lady Lydia. Graphic death scenes, a shallow and improbable show more InstaLove romance, and generalized "historical atmosphere" follow.

Call me crazy, but one thing I tend to expect of historical novels is some level of historical accuracy. Harris clearly did some amount of research for this book, but in my opinion, she just didn't do enough. I'm certainly no expert on the late Georgian era, but even I found so many jarring inconsistencies and errors that I found the story difficult to read. These range from anachronistic phrasing (for example, a woman is described as "passing out") to severe and significant errors in understanding of social conventions of the time. For example, a large portion of the plot is dependent on the inheritance of an earl, which is shown passing to his sister and her husband. Even a casual reader would know that the land of an earl would be entailed. One might argue that someone in the family broke the entail or there are no heirs male, but there is no mention of peculiarities and several male relatives in the correct line are actually mentioned. Since Harris even gets the titles of the earl and his sister (really, really, disastrously) wrong, I suspect a lack of research. The characters also routinely break social custom; for example, Lydia turns up alone in Silkstone's rooms to introduce herself, all of the upper-class characters are appallingly free with their servants, and Lydia doesn't even wear mourning for her brother. Possibly even more problematically, the Philadelphian doctor is treated as though he is of the same class as the upper-level gentry. I still can't figure out exactly what Silkstone is. He is given the title of "doctor", but repeatedly referred to as a "surgeon." (In the Georgian period, these terms delineated the barely-gentlemanly physicians from the lower-class sawbones.) He unabashedly practices a trade, yet is treated by the aristocracy as one of the gentry. He, as well as other physicians (some with titles, no less!) are described as happily participating in the dirty business of dissection. Just getting their hands dirty places them far down on the social ladder.

These could be seen as minor liberties taken to create an interesting story, but not only were there far more anachronisms than I listed here, but I have to wonder: given my lack of historical knowledge of the time, just how many errors didn't I catch?

I listened to this on audio, but not even the spirited narration of Simon Vance could rescue this for me. If you like historical romance with a dash of mystery and a certain amount of liberty with historical veracity, this may be a fun read. To prevent myself from accidentally confusing anachronistic flights of fancy with historical truth, I did not finish the story. show less