I was really looking forward to reading this book and was fortunate to receive an advance copy from Readers First. I read a lot of spy novels and books set during WWII, and having just finished a Treachery of Spies was expecting something similar.
As another reviewer said, this does feel like a sequel; I actually stopped a few pages in to double check it was the first book.
Despite being a trained SOE operative (i.e. The best of the best), I felt Lisbet was very naive and not particularly savvy or trained in the field of espionage. There were interactions with other characters that didn't feel right or, in some cases, explicable. The first page of the story, in France, felt like it was glossed over quite quickly and after she arrived in Lisbon it was all a bit boring. A neutral country, inhabited by Germans officers, people with questionable motives and the local population who all seem to be doing a bad job of spying on everyone while they all swan around supping champagne and having midmorning cocktails.
For a spy/war novel there was little action and what there was could have been better written, in my opinion.
The mission objective was quite vague and the back story that was alluded to but never fully explained left me feeling frustrated rather than intrigued - it had been written as if this had already been covered in an earlier book and was being mentioned as a reminder.
Overall, this wasn't a bad story but if this is a genre you're interested in there are other books I'd recommend reading first (as before, A Treachery of Spies and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky to name just two).
As another reviewer said, this does feel like a sequel; I actually stopped a few pages in to double check it was the first book.
Despite being a trained SOE operative (i.e. The best of the best), I felt Lisbet was very naive and not particularly savvy or trained in the field of espionage. There were interactions with other characters that didn't feel right or, in some cases, explicable. The first page of the story, in France, felt like it was glossed over quite quickly and after she arrived in Lisbon it was all a bit boring. A neutral country, inhabited by Germans officers, people with questionable motives and the local population who all seem to be doing a bad job of spying on everyone while they all swan around supping champagne and having midmorning cocktails.
For a spy/war novel there was little action and what there was could have been better written, in my opinion.
The mission objective was quite vague and the back story that was alluded to but never fully explained left me feeling frustrated rather than intrigued - it had been written as if this had already been covered in an earlier book and was being mentioned as a reminder.
Overall, this wasn't a bad story but if this is a genre you're interested in there are other books I'd recommend reading first (as before, A Treachery of Spies and The Girl Who Fell from the Sky to name just two).