It's World War II and the Allies are helping the French resistance take out important Nazi targets in France. Felicity, also known as Flick, is a British operative in France, orchestrating the sabotage of a phone exchange. Unfortunately the mission goes horribly wrong. They lose a few agents, Flick's husband is shot, and they have to retreat. They are also now on the radar of Nazi officer Dieter, who will stop at nothing to find Flick.
Retreating back to England, Flick decides to take another shot at the phone exchange but this time with an all-female team called the Jackdaws. The team is not trained military but a group of misfits, outcasts, and criminals. Flick has no idea how successful they will be but she has no choice.
Some of the best WWII fiction novels I've read in the past few years have been with a female as the lead. Specifically, I'm thinking of The Nightingale. Though this is more of a thriller than that book, the women of the story drive the plot forward with their strength. Flick was a great character. She had the right amounts of almost everything. She's smart, could get frustrated but wouldn't let those annoyances overshadow everything, wanted love and romance but not to the point of sickness, and incredibly resourceful. The person she's fighting against the whole novel is similar, but on the wrong side of the war.
I don't think I've ever gone wrong with a Ken Follett book and this was no different. A great story, what a page turner!
First Line: "One minute before the explosion, the square at Sainte-Cecile was at peace."
Rating:
(4/5)
Joe is a boy of 11 who has lived in a hospital room since he was 2 months old because he has no immune system to stop himself from getting sick. Joe only has a few things to keep him entertained: tv and video games, his laptop where he in touch with another boy in the States with the same disease, his sister, and his nurses. His sister, Beth, struggles with the decision to move away for school because their parents died a few years ago. That's right. This poor kid is stuck in a bubble and his parents have both died in a car crash. His favourite nurse is Greg and he gets a new on Amir who is a bit of an odd character. He always looks out the window, supposedly looking for UFOs. But maybe Amir can help Joe experience a little more of life?
Isaac Swift is a mathematics professor that has come up with no meaningful proofs during his tenure. He's feeling lost. His girlfriend tries to lure him away from constant sessions of math but eventually gives up and leaves him. Isaac is depressed, which sinks him further in to long sessions of math in the middle of the night. Issac finds inspiration in an unlikely source and thinks he has come up with a solution for the wild numbers. He is quickly accused of plagiarism but he doesn't think it's true.
Pregnant with her first child, Eve goes down memory lane remembering her single mother and losing her at a young age. Eve went to live with her grandparents in Whales after this tragedy on farm land.
Detective Hercule Poirot winds up on the Orient Express as he tries to get back home to assist with an investigation. His friend has procured him a ticket as he owns part of the train line. The train stops in the middle of the night due to a snow storm and by the morning, one of the passengers is dead. Poirot must interview all of the passengers in his car and determine who committed this murder.
Notting Hill's private gardens are a sanctuary for those that live surrounding them, until one night the body of a local young woman is found dead in them. The girl is identified as Reagan Keating, nanny to a male young upcoming dancer. Detective Gemma Jones is included on the case as she is a friend of a friend of the victim's employer and knows some of the parties involved. Her and DI Kerry Boatman start to investigate.
Bridget Jones wants to start her year off right. Lose weight, drink less, smoke less. She starts at a new years party where her parents are trying to set her up with Mark Darcy. Bridget isn't having any of that though. She has her eyes on another man from work.
Jack Tagger is obsessed with death. As an obit writer at the local newspaper, he knows which celebrities have died at a certain age and wonders if he can outlive them. Jack didn't always work on obits. He was relegated to that desk when he told the new newspaper owners that they were killing the paper for profits.
Peter Hessler starts in China as an English teacher, eventually moving his way over to journalism. He keeps in contact with his students and their stories are brought to life in this book. He uses these stories to tell a bit about China's past and teach the reader about more recent history. For example, he has a student move to Shenzen and get a job at a factory there. Peter tells the recent history of Shenzen and how it is an experimental city, built with many factories that have attracted young people to come work. This makes it different from many other cities in China as it is one city where the younger generation isn't living with their family.
Lucy is an international traveller, currently situated in Japan with her boyfriend Yoshi. She's currently unemployed and feeling lonely and sad. Getting an email that her mother has been in a car accident is a perfect excuse to go back to the USA to visit her home town and the Lake of Dreams. Lucy was last there when her father died. There was family drama with her dad's family and unfair distribution of wealth and the family business. Lucy also left behind a boyfriend and a brother. When she goes back, there's a lot to catch up on.
Frank Eloff is a doctor in a poorly funded hospital in remote South Africa. He is coasting in life and career, with his marriage just a signature away from divorce and his career moving nowhere in this small town. When a new doctor shows up for a year rotation, Frank is forced to share his room. Laurence Waters ends up being an idealist, wanting to make a difference in the world. Frank tries to tell him that's not the way things work in this hospital, but Laurence won't take that for an answer. Frank doesn't completely shut Laurence down though. Laurence is able to chip away at Frank's exterior, but it's not just Frank he's fighting against.
Jeannette Walls had a very unusual childhood. She lived with her 3 siblings, alcoholic dad and artist mother traversing the country, hardly sticking around in a city for very long. Her father dreams of making it rich off gold but can't hold a steady job while her mom has a teaching degree but doesn't want to fit in be pigeon holed in to that lifestyle when she just wants to be free.