I’ll Be Seeing You
Lieutenant Luke Kayenta, a Navajo code talker during WWII, is sent by the OSS to the Pyrenees Mountains in 1942 as part of an intelligence operation. He and his cousin Nantai use their native language to shield radio transmissions from the Germans, but Luke is obsessed with the memory of beautiful Kitty Charante, wife of Canadian pilot Philippe Charante. There is little time for Luke to think of love, however, after the Pyrenees operation begins to unravel, especially when German intelligence operative Helmut Adler, an expert on Native American languages, learns of the Navajo transmissions. From that point, it’s touch and go for Luke and his comrades.
The novel is exciting and develops Luke’s character well. The combat scenes could be more authentic, and some plot elements seem rather implausible, but many other passages are vivid and moving. The heavy use of French, German, and Yiddish terms is rather distracting, but similar use of Navajo words adds authenticity to the story. The brevity of the work, at 112 pages, doesn’t allow for everything in the plot to be resolved, but the next book in the Code Talker Chronicles series should take care of that.
