eyes.2c Reviews

Blood Enemy  (Warsaw Quartet #4) by Douglas Jackson          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The quartet of novels depicting a police detective in occupied Warsaw during WWII is concluded with Blood Enemy. Jackson has once again delved into archives and lost places of the era to bring the story of the many parties acting in Poland. We have the Polish resistance (the Armia Krajowa), Jews from the ghettos of Europe brought to Poland, the Jewish resistance inside the death camps, the brutality of the Nazis, the Polish youth resistance trying for when their day to rise up comes, the general populace, and the advancing Russians. It’s dangerous, confusing and terrible. Investigator Jan Kalisz goes undercover into Auschwitz-Birkenau and the gruesomeness of that place is fully on display. Karl is actually a resistance spy and works to maintain his cover, and that of his beloved wife Maria, who is a nurse with the resistance, and his son Stefan who is caught up in secret Youth movement...

The Faces of the Dead  (Cathy Marsden Thriller #2) by Chris Nickson           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leeds 1944. Cathy Marsden is once again faced with a dangerous task. As a Leeds’ Sergeant, Cathy’s been seconded to the Intelligence Service. Their work in Leeds is to discover traitors, deserters and others who would tarnish the war effort. This time Cathy and her male companions are on the trail of someone who’s looking to take over the Leeds balk market and crime scene, run stolen weapons and be a power broker. It starts with a car crash, a dead man and woman who Cathy’s known from her police work. It ratchets up to murder and rape. When people start turning up dead, when the main suspects are always one step ahead it seems like there’s a leak somewhere. In her squad or the police? The US Army’s Criminal Investigation Division becomes involved. Theres an unfortunate cultural clash for Cathy and Warrant Officer Frank Graves at their first meeting. Faces of the d...

A Dark and Deadly Journey  (Evelyne Redfern #3) by Julia Kelly        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Evelyne Redfern and her partner David Poole are being sent to Lisbon to track down a missing informant by the name of James Winn. However that’s not all.  Unbeknownst to the Special Investigations Unit, a secretive branch of British Intelligence, Evelyne’s father Sir Reginald has contacted her with a request. A request that cuts across her original instructions and accidentally involves her in murder. Well to be fair, that happened on the plane to Lisbon. Evelyne races back onboard to rescue her latest detective novel only to find a man sitting in his seat—dead! Evelyne finds herself in plots, counterplots, smuggling, treasonous behavior, and oh yes! Her father! A witty, fast moving spy novel with a What!! ending that left me wanting more and gasping in disbelief! A St. Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley.                     ...

Blood Vengeance  (Warsaw Quartet #3 ) by Douglas Jackson         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Investigator Jan Lalisz is surprised to find himself secretly taken from occupied Poland and dropped into a SOE and Commando training camp in Arisaig in the northwest Scottish highlands. It’s December, 1943. Why’s he here? It’s political. All about keeping the London Polish Resistance and their Warsaw counterpart on side. Churchill wants a Polish detective to investigate the death of the Polish resistance officer Krystina Kowolska, known as the Raven. Krystina’s been found hanging from a tree. Nothing really to see here but…? What Jan uncovers is not one but two murders, rumors, gossip and groups of people who have had free rein and are none too pleased to be called to account for anything. Blood vengeance is a complicated miasma of agents, of strong feelings and beliefs. Jan is deliberately lead away from the truth for many different reasons. He’s on a very tight timeline trying to solv...

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure : A Novel   by Rhys Bowen              ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ellie Endicott is stunned when her staid husband of thirty years, who must have his boiled eggs just so, asks for a divorce—over breakfast. It seems he has met a younger woman, intelligent, smart, pleasant…and it turns out pregnant! Lionel’s plan is to shuffle Ellie off to his small apartment in London, or a workman’s  cottage in the village, give Ellie a pittance. Et voila his problem is solved. Game over! They currently live in a lovely large house that Ellie has over the years completely redecorated, and a stunning garden she’s established. Fortunately wiser heads prevail, including her cleaning lady Maud Moss, who encourages Ellie to consult with the local solicitor. Ellie realizes that her life has been controlled by Lionel. She decides to do something completely different, involving the South of France and the Riviera. She has what she wants from the di...

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau : A Novel by Kristin Harmel      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Told in time frames between   1942 Paris   and 2018 Washington, the story of Colette Marceau, her life, her sorrows and her causes, unveils dramatically. Now nearly ninety, a sprightly woman, she beholds the photo of a bracelet that’s part of an upcoming exhibition in Washington D.C. Studded with diamonds it’s one of a pair that linked together to form the whole, “a constellation of flawless diamonds.” It was lost during the war along with Colette’s four year old sister Liliane. Colette has the matching bracelet. Colette comes from a long line of jewel thieves where the tradition is to rob from the unjust and give to the poor and needy. That’s just what Colette and her mother did. Took valuable stolen jewellery from the Nazis, collaborators, and traitors, to fund the underground. Now Liliane’s bracelet has reappeared and our octogenarian will let nothing get in her way of truth. What...

One Final Turn  (Electra MacDonnell #5 ) by Ashley Weaver       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Word is that’s Electra’s cousin Toby may have escaped from a German prison via an unknown route through the Pyrenees to Lisbon. The British Government wants to help maintain that trail but need to find out who’s running it. Ellie is off to Lisbon to investigate along with an unknown handler Captain Archie Blandings who’s based in Lisbon. Major Gabriel Ramsey the intelligence officer whom she’d become close to, both personally and work wise is apparently going too, but fortunately Ellie is not under his command. Difficult! The last Ellie saw of the Major was when he’d rejected, then dismissed her.  Portugal is neutral and as such Lisbon is a hotbed of spies, officers and opportunists from all sides of the war. Each time Ellie and Archie have a lead someone is one step ahead and they find themselves tripping over the bodies of those who might’ve helped! I found myself chocking up at times, ...

The Book of Lost Children  by Jenny O'Brien       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The islands of Guernsey were occupied by the Nazis during World War II. The population suffered and were under the yoke of an unforgiving invader. Evelyn Nightingale lost the love of her life, Joseph in the early days of the war. Through a series of happenings she’s now  nursing (not registered) at the  Emergency Hospital in Câtel. It’s here she meets the pregnant collaborator Marise and her friend Camille. Marise is having a child to an SS officer. An angry man who wants his unborn child to be sent back to Germany to become a child of the Reich. Why these things happen are never straightforward. Unerlieutenant Jannick Klein is a dreadful man. He has the habit of beating his women when they didn’t please him. Evelyn is determined to help thwart him. Fast forward to Dublin of 2018 and we have Kitty White, an antiques and second hand dealer, buying  a  violin from a woman off the streets. It...

No Precious Truth  (Cathy Marsden Thriller #1) by Chris Nickson       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Leeds during World War II, police sergeant Cathy Marsden has been seconded to Special Investigations Branch seeking criminal gangs and deserters. Now e spionage is added—a whole new game. They’ve been joined by an MI5 operative desperately seeking an escaped German agent who’s been passing himself off as a Dutchman. A man the MI5 committee, the Twenty or XX, had hoped to turn. The MI5 agent is Cathy’s brother Daniel. The only woman amongst a few men, most accept her, except for one recalcitrant colleague. Cathy  has proved herself time and again, able to question people, including women, who have little time for the authorities. Many know her from her time on the beat, and take heed. The group comes close to catching the agent Jan Minuit.  He’s joined forces with the head of a criminal gang. The criminal’s motive is straight up money, now he’s a traitor. Cathy has a close enco...

The Secret Detective Agency  (Book 1) by Helena Dixon        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ An unusual spinster, an asthmatic mathematical intellect and his quite efficient manservant end up working for a secret agency within Whitehall. It’s 1941. Jane Treen has been running agents for an important behind the lines operation. When the operation appears compromised they were withdrawn. Jane had installed one with a minder in a safe house in Devon only she knew about. Unfortunately that agent has turned up dead in a local pond found by  Arthur Cilento who’s just arrived home from his own highly secretive war work. He’s quite annoyed that the people his house had been rented out to were Jane’s agents and no one told him. We have here a somewhat different trio of people who are determined to solve the dilemma. Then there’s the questions. Who else has been compromised? Who’s behind this? I was very cross by the chain smoking Jane who seems to have no thought for the asthmatic Arthur...

When the Germans Come  by David Hewson         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The world’s gone mad! It’s 1940 and just after the Dunkirk retreat in Dover. The place where a German invasion would surely land. The Castle, an imposing fortress like building overlooks Dover and its harbour. The Castle houses a myriad of Ministry departments including one devoted to dirty tricks, of far fetched ideas. Dover and the Castle is a place on the defensive footing. Into this madness comes Louis Reynard, a former Scotland Yard detective, who was wounded during the Dunkirk evacuation. He’s maybe just a little mad or lost, maybe both. His Aunt Veronica, a renowned actress of the West End, and doyen of the Dover area, has a word in the right ears. When he’d recovered Louis found himself posted to the quietness of Dover. Not that that lasted! Now he’s dealing with murder, treason and German agents. He’s also being haunted by a serial killer whom Renaud believes killed his fiancé. The kill...

Betrayal at Blackthorn Park  (Evelyne Redfern #2) by Julia Kelly         ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Much as I like the exploits of Evelyne Redfern and David Poole this was just a bit bland. Heaps of happenings but I felt bogged down in the chase to discover what the murdered engineer Sir Nigel Balram had been looking for. Evelyne and David are sent to a very secret dirty tricks location in Sussex looking for something out of the ordinary when an apparent suicide turns up. Their orders change somewhat. David was supposed to be handling Evelyne’s assignment. Working out what happened was straight from one of my fav English detective novels The culprit is finally trapped down. No surprise! However we are left dangling on a cliff’s edge as the next adventure is anticipated  So, despite the not quite up to par of the first in the series I’m anxious to see what happens next. An enjoyable read nonetheless. A St Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley.           ...