The Norwegian Assassin

A Riveting Nordic Family Saga from World War 2

By: Hannah Byron

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A powerful WWII historical fiction novel of vengeance, resilience, and a woman who fights back against Nazi terror in occupied Norway.

Vienna, 1938.

Esther Weiss’s future is mapped out: a life of promise with her beloved fiancé, Carl Bernstein. But everything shatters when Hitler annexes Austria. The wedding is postponed, her family is targeted, and safety becomes a fading illusion. Forced to flee to Norway, Esther hopes to rebuild—but the reach of Nazi cruelty finds her again.

After returning home one day to find her entire family deported, Esther is left with nothing but grief—and rage. Determined to fight back, she joins the Norwegian Resistance, crafting a false identity and using her appearance to infiltrate fascist circles. Her mission: sabotage, subversion, and revenge.

Esther becomes a ghost in the night—a skilled courier, spy, and assassin striking at those who betrayed her people. But vengeance has a cost. As her heart hardens, even Tore Ringdal, the Resistance fighter who protects her, struggles to reach the woman hidden behind the mission.

Set against the haunting landscapes of Nazi-occupied Norway, The Norwegian Assassin is a gripping novel of survival, grief, and the choices we make when we have nothing left to lose. For readers drawn to stories of Holocaust resistance, emotional courage, and fierce female leads, this unforgettable chapter in The Resistance Girl Series will leave a lasting mark.

The Norwegian Assassin is perfect for fans of Lilac Girls, We Were the Lucky Ones, and The Warsaw Orphan.

Grabbed Me

This is the fourth book in Hannah Byron’s Resistance Girls series. It had me careening from dread to hope to admiration and horror and empathy, sometimes all in the same chapter.

Esther Weiss, the adored daughter of a venerable Viennese Jewish family, was carefully raised to become a cultured upper class wife. Underneath the veneer, she was surprisingly quick to anger, incredibly athletic, and had a growing feeling of existential dread. She was months away from marrying Carl Bernstein when the Anschluss happened, turning Australia into part of Nazi Germany.

I’m American, and what was happening in Scandinavia in WWII is glossed over in schools, probably because the US Military wasn’t involved in battles there. I learned a lot with this book, and I plan on learning more.

While I LOVE the book, the narration was not great. It’s an automated voice, and it can be horribly inconsistent. After 4 books in the series I’ve gotten used to it, but there are jarring mispronunciations that sometimes yank me out of the story.

Great story bad narrator

it's unfortunate that good authors have to use AI for their narration this book would have been much better with a human narrator. too many mispronunciations that humans would not have committed.

Excellent story and writing, performance lacked

I agree with another reviewer. The writing and the story were excellent and very well done. The Virtual Voice Narration does not do it justice. The publisher would make a lot more money on her books, if they invested in a good narrator. The VV mispronounced so many words, like polish, as in furniture polish, instead of Polish, the nationality. I am half Norwegian and can understand quite a bit of Norwegian. The VV pronounced Norwegian words as if they were English words and really sounded ridiculous when you know how they are to be pronounced. Since I'm not able to read books without intense eye strain, I'm happy to at least still have it read to me, even if it wasn't to great.

Extremely poor voice of AI.

Absolutely hate the AI voice that mispronounced proper verbs and pauses incorrectly within a sentence. This totally ruined this audio experience for me and would NOT recommend you purchase. I would not have purchased had I known it would be this bad