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Bill Donovan - https://tinyurl.com/3mhkprtp |
Anna tells her best friend from the Winsor School (which two of my nieces attended) that she is excited OSS has vetted her for a major assignment:
“And it’s an opportunity to really contribute to the war effort and to use my brain in a whole different way than teaching. For a while now, I’ve been living in a world where only Connor’s intelligence mattered, his accomplishments, his . . . everything.”I would have been happy to learn more about the early days of the OSS; I feel as if books about brave young women going undercover to support the French Resistance are fairly common. I enjoyed the descriptions of Anna’s training with other OSS recruits in Hampshire and the London seamstress who prepares her clothing. A significant portion of the book takes place in Paris, however. Once Anna reaches France and is reunited with Josette and Henri, she begins her role as a wireless operator in Paris and is supposed to gather information from the Nazis to transmit back to London. This process is very dangerous: the Germans have technology that can locate radio transmissions so she can’t broadcast for too long and gathering the information on the Germans’ new weapons means flirting with enemy soldiers. I knew not everyone was going to survive but Healey kept me guessing until the end.
Two things bothered me: I have read quite a few books about men and women infiltrating Occupied France. They are warned not to bring anything that would seem out of place and betray them if they are searched. One of the British trainers even goes through Anna’s suitcases to make sure she is in compliance before her departure. It is inconceivable that Bill Donovan would give her a piece of jewelry - a peacock, which is her code name, on the eve of her departure. If the author wanted him to give Anna one of his deceased daughter’s belongings (although how could he have time to be sentimental in the middle of a war?), a gold cross would have been more convincing and less compromising – also appropriate since he and Anna's family are Catholic (I am not sure even affluent Irish Catholics attended The Winsor School in the 1930s, Anna probably should have attended my alma mater, Sacred Heart, with Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy instead).
Similarly, it would not have been advisable for Anna to use her real name in France, even among friends. She would almost certainly have been told to insist on being called Alexine, the identity created for her, just as she demands to hold on to her radio equipment. Acquaintances captured and tortured would be able to reveal her real name and that she is an American, so the less people know the better. There were also a few too many coincidences but I am fairly tolerant of those when the story is good.
Publication: Lake Union Publishing, trade paperback, 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: 20th century, WWII
This is book 10/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2024.This is book 20 of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2024.
And why not Paris in July 2024 as well?
Source: Personal copy. I don’t remember where I bought this but it was already autographed – the author is from Massachusetts so she must have done a bookstore event at that location.
6 comments:
Sounds like an interesting book, and like you said, a fresh perspective. I think the things you mentioned are likely things that would bother me as well.
I enjoyed reading about both the things you liked and your thoughtful criticisms of the book.
best, mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thanks for your balanced review. Neat you could see what didn't work too well, thanks to your experience of the same genre. And welcome in #parisinjuly2024! Thanks for participating
You picked up on an important aspect of the story that probably should have been altered before publication. I tend to overlook those aspects of stories, and I admire people who note these.
I definitely enjoyed the book despite my quibbles but maybe I expect a little more from authors writing historical fiction. They must love the genre to choose it for their stories, which I appreciate.
I have read plenty of books about people being dropped into France, but not sure I have read any where the agent has been American. Similarly, plenty about Bletchley Park but not anthign similar from a US park..
Thanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, and for your ongoing participation!
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