Its good to see a physically strong female character, she does have flaws, which unfortunately undermine the character traits of a successful spy. There is an unrealistically large amount of action which contradict the author's claims to histocial authenticity. If the flaws and contradictions can be ignored then this could be a good read.
This one is set in wartime France, WW2 or course, not WW1 which authors evade like the plague. The characters take up their steroetypes well, the scar faced Gestapo officer, the wiley old lady who has links with the resistance, the English hating Scotchman. I would prefer a little more character development or description, particularly in the German characters, simply labeling them as breast fondling goons is not good enough, however this may come later in the book, if a better adversary to Elizabeth arrives.
Elizabeth is an unsubtle, reactionary and at times overly gullible spy. She is also very lucky, first to follow a random collaborator, who then takes some Germans to her own lodgings, allowing her escape. Then she survives a train derailment, somehow unharmed. She attacks two Gestapo - Pig Eyes and Scar, its clear how she disables pig eyes, but not how she quickly relocates his hefty body into the line of fire of his comrade before shooting them both. This needs more clarity to be believable, why did Scarface not shoot her first?
It is only after having killed two more SS Officers that Elizabeth feels that she has to "tamp down her visceral fear of the black uniform", this doesnt make sense for this fear to surface, and then in relation to the uniform, not the killing, wierd. At one point, Elizabeth is essentially being told how to do her job of spying by a "wiley old lady" character, she is also too proud to admit to being unable to ride a bike, which resulted in falling off, scraping knee, which could have caused a more serious injury but a made her more visible to discovery by the Germans from whom she was fleeing, unsound spying logic.
Elizabeth's mother is Lady Anne, what is it with the american obsession with nobility? its also an English flaw to look up to the priviledged class, why do they persist in a stereotype which is predictable, flawless and boring? where are the working class heroes? can they only be Scotch?
There is evidence of historical research, mostly this is similar value to Allo Allo, however there are some good weapons, the Walther PPK and Sgian Dubh were excellent additions.
The voices of the characters is used a little too much to describe their background, the Scotch airman Sinclair who unnecessarily explains why he is a Squadron Leader and not a Pilot Officer upon meeting the spy, which doesnt make sense when they are exposed to nearby Germans.
I'm a fan of war fiction and non-fiction, but this extract indicates that this will be an overly simplistic book, the good and bad characters are too linear, I would like to see more facets in the character design or historical content to create a viable read for me.
This one is set in wartime France, WW2 or course, not WW1 which authors evade like the plague. The characters take up their steroetypes well, the scar faced Gestapo officer, the wiley old lady who has links with the resistance, the English hating Scotchman. I would prefer a little more character development or description, particularly in the German characters, simply labeling them as breast fondling goons is not good enough, however this may come later in the book, if a better adversary to Elizabeth arrives.
Elizabeth is an unsubtle, reactionary and at times overly gullible spy. She is also very lucky, first to follow a random collaborator, who then takes some Germans to her own lodgings, allowing her escape. Then she survives a train derailment, somehow unharmed. She attacks two Gestapo - Pig Eyes and Scar, its clear how she disables pig eyes, but not how she quickly relocates his hefty body into the line of fire of his comrade before shooting them both. This needs more clarity to be believable, why did Scarface not shoot her first?
It is only after having killed two more SS Officers that Elizabeth feels that she has to "tamp down her visceral fear of the black uniform", this doesnt make sense for this fear to surface, and then in relation to the uniform, not the killing, wierd. At one point, Elizabeth is essentially being told how to do her job of spying by a "wiley old lady" character, she is also too proud to admit to being unable to ride a bike, which resulted in falling off, scraping knee, which could have caused a more serious injury but a made her more visible to discovery by the Germans from whom she was fleeing, unsound spying logic.
Elizabeth's mother is Lady Anne, what is it with the american obsession with nobility? its also an English flaw to look up to the priviledged class, why do they persist in a stereotype which is predictable, flawless and boring? where are the working class heroes? can they only be Scotch?
There is evidence of historical research, mostly this is similar value to Allo Allo, however there are some good weapons, the Walther PPK and Sgian Dubh were excellent additions.
The voices of the characters is used a little too much to describe their background, the Scotch airman Sinclair who unnecessarily explains why he is a Squadron Leader and not a Pilot Officer upon meeting the spy, which doesnt make sense when they are exposed to nearby Germans.
I'm a fan of war fiction and non-fiction, but this extract indicates that this will be an overly simplistic book, the good and bad characters are too linear, I would like to see more facets in the character design or historical content to create a viable read for me.