Resistance

Written by Mara Timon
Review by Marilyn Pemberton

May 1944. Two female spies are dropped into France to try and help the Resistance to disrupt German operations in preparation for the Normandy landings and to discover whether, as is suspected, the Resistance group has been compromised and the previous English wireless operator discovered and forced to hand over his codes. Elisabeth de Mornay becomes Frau Hügel. The other spy dropped is Léonie, who actually is a German and who quickly becomes the mistress of a high-ranking Nazi officer. Elisabeth is the replacement wireless operator and is also trying to find who is the traitor within the Resistance. There are very few people she can trust.

What came as a complete surprise to me was when Elisabeth comes face to face with a man from her past, and, she hopes her future, who is a German and working for Rommel though, not, she is certain, a Nazi. He has his own dangerous agenda to follow. There are some truly horrific scenes, and some that had me almost tearing the pages in my haste to see what happens next. I even laughed a couple of times.

This is the second book in a series, the first being Timon’s debut novel, City of Spies, which introduces Elisabeth and tells of an earlier mission in Lisbon in 1943. It’s not necessary to have read it, but it would be useful to do so as presumably it answers a few questions I have about how she met her husband, what happened to him and how she became a spy in the first place.

I started as a bit of a sceptic but ended up as a fan. This book will please any reader who enjoys a thriller about espionage, war or just adventure. Recommended.