This story is set in Nazi Germany, before the allies joined WWII, but after the persecution of the Jews had begun. Our protagonists, Frances and Richard Myles, are ordinary people called into undercover service. They are given what seems to be a simple task, but turns out to be more complex and dangerous than they supposed. This book was written in 1941 and is about 290 pages long.
General rating: 3.5 out of 4. Very good book.
1. Is it plausible? Yes.
2. Is it thought provoking? Yes. Lots of philosophizing in this book.
3. Is it engaging? Very much so.
4. Is it uplifting? Not particularly. The way the Nazi rhetoric captured generations of Germans is hard to understand. It's really lowering to think of so many people willing to betray and murder their neighbors. Every time I read about Nazi Germany, or the Kmer Rouge (I do not know how to spell that) or Communist Korea or the French Revolution, or Communist Russia or Rwanda (etc etc), I just cannot understand how or why people are convinced that killing their fellow countryman is the right thing to do. It dumbfounds me. Am I as easily led as so much of humanity seems to be? Why are we so vulnerable to the prevailing thought, why are we such blind swallowers of media-driven values? I just don't get it and I think it's frightening. So, in that this book is about the time when Germany was embracing all things Nazi and the rest of the world was just waking up to the insanity of it... this book is not uplifting. However, it is about "good" having a triumph over "evil", so in that was it is uplifting, I suppose.
Language: none
Sex: none
My recommendation: I really, really like Helen MacInnes. I like her characters, I get caught up in the worlds her books report. I found this book exciting and thoughtful without being excoriating. I highly recommend it.
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