Author’s Notes
Dear Reader,
Richard has become one of my favorite characters and after writing the first book about him and Katrina, TROUBLE BREWING, I knew I had to give them a real happy end, not just a half-hearted one.
BITTER TEARS, though, was a much tougher book to write, than I had anticipated and at times I wasn’t sure they’d make it. But the two of them persevered, like so many millions of real people did in a similar fashion, and you can’t image my relief when they finally managed to reunite with his family.
Unfortunately, the end of World War II wasn’t the end of human suffering; for some people it was only the beginning. We can’t really imagine the sheer amount of people on the move.
According to statistics close to 50 million people mostly in Eastern Europe and Russia wer
