This was a book in a series which i hadn't read any others of but don't feel like i was missing out as enough backstory was discussed to get you up to speed if you hadn't read any other. Also the fact that this takes place during such an infamous period of history means you are kind of up to speed already.
The pace is relentless, from the excerpt we got for this we were left on a cliffhanger thinking our heroine had been captured by the Germans, how cruel you were to do that to us, i was extremely relieved when i read what had actually happened once i got the full book (no spoilers as to the circumstances around it, but i thoroughly enjoyed being duped).
We switch between Saffron Courtney on her special training to be inserted behind enemy lines to aid in the resistance in Belgium, and the fighting of Gerhard von Meerbach who was unfortunate enough to have been posted into the hell of the siege on Stalingrad.
Once Saffron completes her training she is then sent to South Africa to inveigle her way into the enemies good graces to get them to transport her into Belgium, to discover the truth into why all of their previous spies were so easily captured. Once she makes it into Belgium and completes her mission there is a very tense escape attempt that had me gripped throughout.
Gerhard on the other hand goes from bad to worse, getting away from Stalingrad he finds himself jumping from base to base as the German's retreat further to their homeland until eventually his voicing of his displeasure at the Fuhrer finds him arrested and taken to one of the prisoner camps and eventually on to Dachau. The horrors of those have been well documented and Wilbur Smith holds no punches in his descriptions of what we find there and the treatments the prisoners suffered.
As much as this is a work of fiction, so much of it is based in historic fact that as harrowing a read as it is I couldn't stop and finished this book off little over a day after receiving it. It was extremely well written and kept me turning the page to find out how it would end.
The pace is relentless, from the excerpt we got for this we were left on a cliffhanger thinking our heroine had been captured by the Germans, how cruel you were to do that to us, i was extremely relieved when i read what had actually happened once i got the full book (no spoilers as to the circumstances around it, but i thoroughly enjoyed being duped).
We switch between Saffron Courtney on her special training to be inserted behind enemy lines to aid in the resistance in Belgium, and the fighting of Gerhard von Meerbach who was unfortunate enough to have been posted into the hell of the siege on Stalingrad.
Once Saffron completes her training she is then sent to South Africa to inveigle her way into the enemies good graces to get them to transport her into Belgium, to discover the truth into why all of their previous spies were so easily captured. Once she makes it into Belgium and completes her mission there is a very tense escape attempt that had me gripped throughout.
Gerhard on the other hand goes from bad to worse, getting away from Stalingrad he finds himself jumping from base to base as the German's retreat further to their homeland until eventually his voicing of his displeasure at the Fuhrer finds him arrested and taken to one of the prisoner camps and eventually on to Dachau. The horrors of those have been well documented and Wilbur Smith holds no punches in his descriptions of what we find there and the treatments the prisoners suffered.
As much as this is a work of fiction, so much of it is based in historic fact that as harrowing a read as it is I couldn't stop and finished this book off little over a day after receiving it. It was extremely well written and kept me turning the page to find out how it would end.