To Play the Fox: A Novel of Fighter Pilots in World War Two

By Frank Barnard

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The fighter pilots in question are an urbane Englishman, a licentious American, and a cynical German. We follow their wayward paths separately, but at the back of our minds we just know that they will all meet up at some point.

This is not just a “shoot-em-up” novel. Our heroes (realistically) do a lot of non-combat duty— PR work, aircraft ferrying, and photo-reconnaissance. Unfortunately, there are numerous true-life biographies that illustrate the more humdrum aspects of a fighter pilot’s life much better than a work of fiction can. This wouldn’t matter so much, except that the conflict scenes in this novel also lack emotional punch. I found the history side convincing, but I also felt curiously detached from it all.