Book Log 2009 #47: The Arms Maker of Berlin by Dan Fesperman

A scholar on Nazi Germany with an interest in the short-lived White Rose resistance movement has to find files about the group for which a colleague died (possibly murdered) that shed light on the White Rose resistance movement and its potential ties to an elderly German industrialist. Along the way, the scholar teams up with a woman whose single-minded determination to find the same information leads to questions about her past and how well she can be trusted.

The book is split between the modern day search and World War II-era Germany, the latter following the industrialist during his younger - and apparently more radical - days. The two come together at the end of the book and its shocking conclusion, though I found some of the conclusions fairly easy to guess as things went along.

It's a different twist to World War II espionage stories, especially with the involvement of the White Rose, whose fight against Hitler isn't well known in the US. I also appreciated the way that the drudgery of academic research is portrayed, given how easily documents seem to turn up in similar works. Worth a look.