Category: 20 Books of Summer

#BookReview China Blue by Madalyn Morgan #20BooksofSummer23

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About the Book

At the beginning of World War II Claire Dudley joins the WAAF. She excels in languages and is recruited by the Special Operations Executive to work in German occupied France with Captain Alain Mitchell, of the RCAF, and the French Resistance.

Against SOE rules Claire falls in love. The affair has to be kept secret. Even after her lover falls into the hands of the Gestapo, Claire cannot tell anyone they are more than comrades.

As the war reaches its climax, Claire fears she will never again see the man she loves.

Format: Paperback (356 pages) Publisher:
Publication date: 21st May 2015 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

China Blue is the third book in the Dudley Sisters series but can be read as a standalone. (It has since been republished by Storm Publishing with the title Betrayal.)

In the first part of the book the reader gets an insight, through Claire’s eyes, into the meticulous process for assessing suitability to join the Special Operations Executive and the training to prepare agents for active service: physical tests, parachute training, interrogation techniques and agent tradecraft. Claire is also given her code name – China Blue. Being close to her sisters and her friend, Eddie, Claire finds it difficult not being able to confide in them the role she is about to undertake, or the risks it involves.

It’s during Claire’s training that she first encounters Captain Alain ‘Mitch’ Mitchell. In shades of Pride & Prejudice, they don’t hit it off to begin with but it’s not long before that changes.

I found Claire’s transformation from assured, competent, fearless young woman to lovelorn girl a little sudden. She throws caution to the wind (with, I’m afraid, rather predictable consequences) and disregards everything she’s been told about what to do if a fellow agent is captured. The fact personal considerations seemed to take precedence over her role I thought risked her becoming more of a liability than an asset.

The author creates a believable sense of jeopardy with Resistance members ever mindful of the possibility of discovery or betrayal and the population at risk of being on the receiving end of random acts of violence by German soldiers. Personally I would have loved more detail about Claire’s work with the Resistance and less of the romantic storyline but I know other readers may think differently.

China Blue is an engaging wartime love story with moments of real drama.

In three words: Romantic, dramatic, emotional

Try something similar: Daughters of War by Dinah Jefferies

About the Author

Madalyn Morgan was an actress for more than thirty years working in Repertory theatre, the West End, film and television. She is a radio presenter and journalist, writing articles for newspapers and magazines.

Madalyn was brought up in Lutterworth, at the Fox Inn. The pub was a great place for an aspiring actress and writer to live, as there were so many different characters to study and accents to learn. At twenty-four, Madalyn gave up a successful hairdressing salon and wig-hire business for a place at East 15 Drama College, and a career as an actress.

In 2000, with fewer parts available for older actresses, Madalyn taught herself to touch type, completed a two-year correspondence course with The Writer’s Bureau and started writing. After living in London for thirty-six years, she has returned to her home town of Lutterworth, swapping two window boxes and a mortgage, for a garden and the freedom to write. (Photo: Twitter profile)

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#BookReview The Night Raids by Jim Kelly #20BooksofSummer23 @thewaterclock

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About the Book

A lone German bomber crosses the east coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long, hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and, following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridge’s rail yards. The shell falls short of its mark and lands in a neighbourhood of terraced streets on the edge of the city’s medieval centre.

DI Eden Brooke is first on the scene and discovers the body of an elderly woman, Nora Wylde, in a house on Elm Street, two fingers on her left hand severed, in what looks like a brutal attempt by looters to steal her rings.

When the next day Nora’s teenage granddaughter Peggy, a munitions worker, is reported missing, Brooke realises there is more to the situation than meets the eye.

Format: Paperback (352 pages) Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 20th August 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime

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My Review

The Night Raids is the third in the author’s historical mystery series set in WW2 Cambridge, the follow-up to The Great Darkness and The Mathematical Bridge. (You can read my reviews by following the links from the titles.)

Those who have read the previous books will know what a wonderful character the author has created in Detective Inspector Eden Brooke. His cruel treatment by the enemy during World War One damaged his eyesight, leaving him extremely sensitive to light so at times he has to wear tinted glasses. It has also left him with chronic insomnia meaning he’s often to be found roaming the city of Cambridge at night in the company of other ‘nighthawks’, individuals who, because of their job or inclination, work when most are asleep. But his intuition and sense of justice are undimmed.

He’s a keen night swimmer and, not for the first time, it’s during one of his swims that he detects the first sign of something not quite right going on in the city. However, it’s not long before he has other serious matters requiring his attention. But are these isolated incidents or is there some connection between them? At one point, he observes, ‘I have a series of events which seem to lack every coherent sense of cause and effect.’ A detective’s nightmare perhaps but a reader’s dream when it comes to an absorbing plot.

I loved the little insights into his domestic life which also reflect the realities of wartime. Brooke’s son and his son-in-law are on active service and his wife, Claire, and daughter, Joy, are working as nurses.

It’s early on in the Second World War but already the impact on Britain has become noticeable in both town and countryside: people heeding the call to ‘Dig for Victory’ by planting up front gardens and road verges with vegetables, previously unproductive farmland once again under crops, Land Girls working in the fields. The effects of German raids are all too obvious as well with streets littered with bombed-out houses. I liked the way the author gives us the German perspective as well, showing the impact of Allied bombing raids on German cities and the fact that grief and loss is common to both sides. In fact, this alternate perspective becomes pivotal to the storyline in more ways than one.

As we discover, crime doesn’t stop because there’s a war on and in fact it can be the perfect cover. There’s plenty that can go on undetected during a blackout or the confusion that follows a bombing raid. People are displaced, houses are left unprotected and shortages can leave people prey to opportunists.

The Night Raids is skilfully crafted crime mystery with an atmospheric setting and great period detail. If you were a fan of TV’s Foyle’s War I think you would love it. I really hope there will be another book in the series at some point.   

In three words: Intriguing, atmospheric, suspenseful

Try something similar: The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear

About the Author

Jim Kelly (now writing as J.G. Kelly) was born in 1957 and is the son of a Scotland Yard detective. He went to Sheffield University, later training as a journalist and worked on the Bedfordshire Times, Yorkshire Evening Press and the Financial Times.

His first book, The Water Clock, was shortlisted for the John Creasey Award and he has since won a CWA Dagger in the Library and the New Angle Prize for Literature. He lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire. (Photo: Author website)

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