What’s it all about?:
I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.
That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.
He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.
We are a sensational team.
What did I think?:
I love a good historical fiction, and this novel based around the life of two British girls in the World War II period is up there with the best of them. From the beginning, it is jam-packed with action, as we are introduced to the main narrator of the story, Verity who also goes by MANY other names (don’t worry it becomes clear as the story continues) who is being interrogated and tortured by the German Gestapo. They are grilling her for information about the British war effort, aircraft sites, specific codes that are used to transmit messages etc, and about her best friend Maddie who works as a pilot and flew Verity into France a short time before she was captured. The story switches between time periods, where we learn how the girls developed their close friendship, to the present time where Verity is being interrogated, and we also hear Maddie’s point of view on certain events. I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but I found the way in which it was structured ingenious, and loved the fact that we got an insight into how much British women did for the war effort, as it is normally focused purely on the men.
As the story progresses, we learn about the hardships suffered by Verity and Maddie as they try to help in a man’s world, and witness the bravery of both women when dealing with events varying from the espionage activities they undertake, to being interrogated and tortured by the Nazi’s. It certainly left me with the feeling that the author had definitely done her homework, as she seemed to get these episodes across to the reader with real authenticity. There are a few twists, turns and surprises in the novel also which I wasn’t expecting, and these only served to make it even more exciting and a joy to read. This is only the first Elizabeth Wein book that I have read, but considering how much I enjoyed this, it definitely won’t be the last.
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
