The Eye of the Storm
The Normandy landings are a recent memory in June 1944, and everything has changed irrevocably. Near the front line is the quiet farm of Ferme de la Source, where Martine has her own problems keeping the farm going, and hiding her German lover, Otto. Meanwhile, Colonel David Clarke is getting his troops ready for the big push, while his wife has an American pilot lover of her own. All the battles aren’t going to be fought on the battlefield…
I’ve read lots of books about wartime, and they usually fall into two categories: the home front (bombings, land girls, GIs and goodbyes) or the front itself (missions, captures, historical figures, etc). I prefer the latter, but sometimes wish a bit of the former could be incorporated too for a more rounded picture. In this book the two are actually combined, and the main characters seem wonderfully realistic and immediate. It shows how war changes everything, and how people react to the situations they find themselves in, whether it is taking a lover or planning an attack. Ms Jones is adept at descriptions of battle, and the result is a book that ought to please a large range of people of both sexes – no mean feat. This one stays in the mind for sometime afterwards, always the sign of a good book.
