Books reviews, current events, and other musings

 
Ken Follett's Jackdaws is a decent airplane book, but isn't one of his better works. In it, an all-female group of British secret agents are on a mission to blow up a telephone exchange in Nazi-occupied France, shortly before the Normandy invasion. An all-female crew is necessary so they can gain access to the facility as cleaning personnel.

The storyline follows the standard Follett formula: an espionage showdown between two formidable, though unusual, characters. Felicity Clairet (Flick) leads the British Special Operations team facing German security officer Dieter Franck. Jackdaws has more violence than other Follett books, since Franck captures, tortures and kills several British and Resistance figures, though none of it is excessively graphic. The obligatory romance, between Flick and an American intelligence officer, is rather lame.

The story holds your attention, and it's not difficult to overlook the contrived portions of the plot. At the end, it's satisfying when the women accomplish their mission against the Nazis. Follett fans would enjoy Jackdaws, though anyone who's not familiar with his writing should read the vastly superior novels The Man from St. Petersburg and A Dangerous Fortune instead.
posted by Julian at 4:30 PM