Ambulance Girls At War
Ambulance Girls at War is the third novel about the Ambulance Girls who served in London during World War II.
Set against the backdrop of the London Blitz, young Maisie Halliday has left the grinding poverty of her rural English childhood behind by becoming a professional dancer. Life changes when the Germans bomb Britain and Maisie joins the volunteer ambulance service to help the wounded. She manages to evade extreme danger until a night off in the Café de Paris. The nightclub is bombed, she rushes to tend to a dying man who thrusts a locket into her pants pocket, and then she reconnects with a handsome American stranger named Michael Harker.
As the story continues, she begins to see Michael Harker socially and becomes enamored of him, until she begins to suspect that he is not the innocent American she thought. The locket contained hidden microfilm, which throws her life into danger as both the British and the American governments will do almost anything to retrieve it. As the story reaches its climax, Maisie and the reader discover that falling in love during the war is risky, and trust is as enigmatic as it is precious.
I enjoyed the book and the fact that the author did her research; I often felt as if “I were there.” Although this is not a criticism, I do wish the endpapers had shown a map of London, so the reader could more accurately follow the action. Recommended reading.
