As a spy thriller with a female protagonist and a second world war setting, this book was right up my street. The first section looks at the Elisabeth's flight from Paris and touches on the life of a British SOE agent operating behind enemy lines in wartime France. It is thrilling and compelling, so I felt that the pace of the book slowed a little once she had arrived in Lisbon, which is the setting for the bulk of the story.
While the action moved a little more slowly in the second part, it was made up for by the evocative description of the expat scene in wartime Lisbon and its intriguing atmosphere. Novels set in wartime London or Paris are much more common so it was refreshing to read about how a different European city fared during that period. The neutrality of Portugal allowed the writer to draw on both sides of the conflict and to vividly describe characters rubbing shoulders with those they would be at war with were they in their home country.
While the action moved a little more slowly in the second part, it was made up for by the evocative description of the expat scene in wartime Lisbon and its intriguing atmosphere. Novels set in wartime London or Paris are much more common so it was refreshing to read about how a different European city fared during that period. The neutrality of Portugal allowed the writer to draw on both sides of the conflict and to vividly describe characters rubbing shoulders with those they would be at war with were they in their home country.