... an audacious plot twist ... Meacham ratchets the suspense ever tighter, while providing fascinating backstory on the intrepid five as well as delivering a detail-rich portrait of Paris during the Occupation.
Most people in America—and for that matter, most people in Paris by this point—have never lived in an occupied city. Meacham’s impeccable pacing and razor-wire tension evoke the daily drama of life under a Reich whose French reign might have lasted little more than four years but felt like the thousand years that it threatened to endure.
Meacham has previously specialized in romance novels, and this story has that same sweep and atmosphere. The thrills are tingly rather than electrifying, the leads are superficially satisfying, and the enemies meet their appropriate ends ... A long and leisurely spy novel, reminiscent of a 1950s movie. Recommended where there is voracious genre readership.
In this fast-paced and enjoyable WWII espionage tale...Meacham’s close concentration on each character’s particular struggles to survive in isolation, and the drawn-out foreshadowing that one of the spies will be shot slows the momentum leading to the gripping finale. Despite this, Meacham’s nail-biting tale will please fans looking for an intricate story of spycraft and deception.
[The characters'] cover stories offer surprising glimpses of daily life for the French and their German occupiers. (And a character list at the beginning of the book helps keep their real names and aliases straight.) ... Complex, epic, and rich in historical detail—an uplifting story of finding friendship behind enemy lines.
