Luz's assignment is to pose as Elisa Carmody de Soto-Dominguez, a Mexican-American revolutionary who has been working with the Germans, and was recently captured by the Black Chamber. Luz is perfect for the role, since she is a Cuban-American whose father was Irish, so she easily slips into the role as she travels aboard the airship San Juan Hill headed to Amsterdam. Her mission - get close to a spy code-named Imperial Sword and find out what the Germans are planning.
Before long, Luz susses out not one, but two German spies on board. One is a handsome specimen named Horst von Duckler, while the other is a stodgy scientist named von Bulow. Luz and Horst quickly find their way to each other's bed, but even before Luz can weasel the much needed information from Horst, von Bulow finds himself a target. You see, as fate would have it, Luz isn't the only faction searching for a German spy, but she's a capable agent and she soon proves herself a valuable ally to both men and the German army.
Once Luz, Horst, and von Bulow arrive at Castle Rauenstein, deep in the heart of dangerous German territory, they are introduced to Ciara Whelan, an Irish-American girl who is an engineering savant, but is tangled up with an Irish revolutionary group in America. Her purpose is two-fold and she'll be responsible for more than a few harried moments in Luz's mission, but she just might end up fitting well into Luz's plan.
When the German terror plot is finally revealed, Luz realizes that her actions here will not only affect America greatly, but the world. The Germans have developed a deadly and horrible weapon called The Breath of Loki, which they happily demonstrate to Luz, Ciara, and Horst, with von Bulow beaming, as he was one of the architects of this disastrous design. Can Luz get the plan of attack into the hands of the Americans, before the weapon is utilized? It might be pretty hard when she is expected to be by Horst's side when the plan is executed.
While I enjoyed Luz's escapades and found some parts of the book to be very exciting, I must admit that there were changed aspects of WWI that were probably lost on me. I am a big fan of history, especially WWII, but I also have an interest in WWI, which is why Black Chamber initially appealed to me. It was clear pretty early on that my cursory knowledge of the war and the time period was not enough for this book, as I found myself fact-checking several things early on. It didn't render the book completely unenjoyable to me, but I think it definitely hampered my level of enjoyment. I also found it aggravating that Luz would constantly say phrases in Spanish and only sometimes were they translated. Since I don't speak Spanish, I tended to ignore these times, but they were frequent, so that alienated me a bit as a reader. There was also a good bit of German, but these phrases were almost always explained.
Personally, I would only recommend Black Chamber to true history buffs of WWI, in order to get the most out of the book. Like I said, you can certainly read and enjoy it with only a passing interest or knowledge base of WWI, but I think you'll miss out on a lot. Luz O'Malley Aróstegui is an intriguing character with lots of flair, but she just didn't draw me in enough to become invested in her as a recurring character.
