JACKDAWS - book review

 

The prolific Ken Follett’s Jackdaws was published in 2001. His output is varied and broad in theme and place and time. Here, he returns to the Second World War and spies – some twenty-three years after his WWII debut novel Eye of the Needle.

The story covers the nine days before D-Day, June 6, 1944. Twenty-eight-year-old Felicity 'Flick' Clairet, an SOE agent is leading a Resistance assault on a French chateau in the village of Sainte-Cecile, the German communications hub for the area. But it goes wrong and she and her French husband barely manage to escape. Some of their team are killed and others are captured.

The German interrogator is Colonel Dieter Franck who, while not enjoying inflicting pain on his victims, is good at it. The Germans are aware that an invasion is about to occur soon and that will entail the rising up of many Resistance cells. He is certain that if he can break the will of his captives, he can learn details about the various groups.

Flick returns to England and is given permission to try again to crack the chateau communications hub. She recruits the Jackdaws, a ‘dirty half-dozen’ – all-female team to infiltrate in place of the regular cleaners. Not all of them will survive...

This is a typical Follett page-turner with characters you soon come to know and care about. Even Franck evokes a measure of sympathy. The interrogators, the invaders, considered the SOE agents as terrorists. Both sides were ruthless. In these sensitive times perhaps some readers will find certain aspects of the violence depicted as distressing; yet this kind of thing – and worse – happened. I’ve read a number of nonfiction and fiction books about the SOE and Follett’s research seems very accurate – and never slows the pace.

If you want an involving fast read, this suspenseful thriller will fit the bill.

Editorial comment:

Blame the editor. On p312 a coded message mentions Friday 1 June. Yet on p315 we’re told that Friday is 2 June. Oops. [Hopefully it has been amended since my 2002 edition].

Fantasy series - Floreskand 3: MADURAVA

FLORESKAND 3: MADURAVA  by Morton Faulkner

Amazon UK: https://tinyurl.com/mr23etcn

Amazon US: https://tinyurl.com/4sh9jftx

Shortly after the Lornwater rebellion (Floreskand 2: King), the head of the Madurava House witnesses a meaningful change in the alignment of the sacred compass – pointing to the Sonalume Mountains, to the dunsaron. 

 

Meanwhile, the Ratava are preparing for a migration that will take them to the dunsaron, for their food-source – the vast numbers of the schwarm – are burrowing away from their usual haunts towards the land of their forebears to propagate the species.

We meet again Rujon Sos and K-Kwan as they track the schwarm and the various competing groups of Underpeople.

Still recovering, the three cities of Lornwater need rebuilding and that requires money. But the royal treasury has been emptied by deposed Saurosen. The trail of lost riches leads Lord Tanellor to the dunsaron, guided by the daughter of Arqitor, Charja Nev.

Others are converging on the same area. First-commander Nimentan Pellas, loyal to the deposed king, has been sent on a secret mission with a large body of soldiers. Almaturge Rait Falo is headed there also with a caravan of great wealth.

Ulran is slowly coming to terms with his new disability, while his son Ranell is in pursuit of Epal Danorr who has been released by a general amnesty and has abducted Lorar.

Watchman Welde Dep is embroiled in arcane investigations that point to a powerful almaturge committing murder, while the new king wrestles with the serpentine diplomacy of the Ranmeron Empire, Tarakanda.

The denouement will be played out in a mysterious place where the land has never experienced snow and is always warm. Soon, it will be warm with flowing blood… 

Reviews of Madurava

The most enjoyable of the series so far, Madurava takes you deeper into the lives of the various groups of characters in an enthralling plot which is so vividly described you begin to feel you've just watched the movie. Certainly, by the end of the book you just know that there must be an awful lot more to tell and I look forward to the next one with great anticipation.

The third book in the series and the best so far. The saga continues to grow following the aftermath of the civil war. Old favourites reappear on a new adventure with all groups heading in the same direction hinting at a grand climax that doesn't disappoint. As always with these stories there is an unexpected twist... The book ends hinting at an even more epic adventure to come in book 4 Prophecy. If this series continues to develop in the way it has so far I think it is going to rival Eddings and Feist.

Love how the characters are developing. The storyline is becoming more intriguing and you get a sense of being very much a part of the adventure. The complexity of every aspect of this land, from the calendar to the religions, shows the author’s dedication to ensuring that the tale is unique and fresh.

Book review - I Kill

André Warner, manhunter is back, and with a vengeance. That’s what he deals in, sometimes – vengeance. Most of the time, he’s an assassin for hire, as we learned in End as an Assassin. Lex Lander’s sequel to that fast-paced traumatic thriller is a page-turner, and again no holds are barred.

It begins with a death – one planned, one unplanned. An echo of the start of End as an Assassin, almost; but with a difference. This time he really has retired from his deadly profession. Or so he thought. As his employer/contact says, ‘Some professions are not for quitting.’

So, his latest hit was in Tangier, with an alias. While sorting out his hardware issues for the hit, he encounters Clair Power, who is staying at the hotel with her teenage daughter, Lizzy. Before long, he’s helping them to ward off the unwanted attentions of Dutchman Rik de Bruin.

Yet again we’re immersed in the faux reality of Warner’s world, the details so convincing that it must be ‘real’.

Warner’s relationship with Clair – and later with Lizzy – becomes complicated as the plot thickens. There’s abduction, gunplay, brutal violence and sex in roughly equal measure.  And poignancy, and death too.

Another highly enjoyable breathless tale told in Warner’s own words. And, happily, more will follow with the third adventure, The Man who Hunted Himself due out later this year. I’ll be there.