shortstories – Page 15 – What Cathy Read Next…

About the Book

When the shell hits Tom’s aircraft he just knows this will be a bad day. Shot down. Stranded behind enemy lines. This is not how British RAF pilot Tom Westlake expected his secret mission to pan out. But he soon discovers that his day is about to become a lot worse…

Unwilling to surrender, he escapes his captors more times than he cares to count – until the Gestapo enters the chase. In the hands of his deadliest enemy yet, will there be hope for him to survive?

Format: ebook (50 pp.) Publisher:
Published: 6^th May 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Downed Over Germany on Goodreads

My Review

Downed Over Germany, is a prequel to War Girl Ursula, the first novel in the author’s War Girl series set in World War 2. For readers familiar with War Girl Ursula it provides the back story for an important character in that book. For new readers, it will provide the perfect introduction to the series.

The author creates a believable sense of jeopardy as Tom seeks to evade capture whilst attempting to make his way across country to the safety of the Dutch border. He’s hampered by the injuries he suffered when he was forced to bail out, by lack of food, by his rudimentary German and his conspicuous clothing. Oh, and the fact that pretty much all the people he might encounter will want to kill him. He is the enemy, after all.

Without spoiling the story, Tom has some narrow escapes and some pretty brutal encounters. However, fortune seems to be on his side when help arrives from an unlikely source, setting the scene for the events depicted in War Girl Ursula. I enjoyed following Tom’s adventures in Downed Over Germany. I particularly liked some of the interesting detail about how RAF pilots were equipped to cope with the prospect of capture.

I received a free copy of this short story for signing up to the author’s newsletter and chose to provide this honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Tense, adventure, exciting

Try something similar…War Girl Ursula by Marion Kummerow (read my review here)

About the Author

Marion Kummerow was born and raised in Germany, before she set out to “discover the world” and lived in various countries. In 1999 she returned to Germany and settled down in Munich where she’s now living with her family.

After dipping her toes with non-fiction books, she finally tackled the project dear to her heart. Unrelenting is the story about her grandparents, who belonged to the German resistance and fought against the Nazi regime. It’s a book about resilience, love and the courage to stand up and do the right thing.

Connect with Marion

Website ǀ Facebook ǀ Twitter ǀ Goodreads

Top Ten Tuesday new

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish and now hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

Each Tuesday, Jana assigns a new topic. Create your own Top Ten list that fits that topic – putting your unique spin on it if you want.
Everyone is welcome to join but please link back to The Artsy Reader Girl in your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Favourite Novellas/Short Stories. This was quite a tough one for me because I generally favour full length novels. However, book blogging has made me more open to different book formats and, when I set my mind to it, I realised I had read quite a few short story collections – and one or two novellas – over the past few years. Enough, at any rate, to come up with a list of ten I’d recommend. Click on the title to read my review of the book description on Goodreads.

Beautiful Star & Other Stories by Andrew Swanston

I was introduced to this collection by the lovely Emily at The Dome Press when she invited me to take part in the blog tour. The author has taken what might have been considered footnotes in history and fashioned them into compelling, character-driven stories

A Sea of Sorrow by David Blixt, et al.

Subtitled A Novel of Odysseus, this is in fact six stories each by a different author (who collectively style themselves ‘The H Team’). Each story focuses on one of six “supporting” characters in Homer’s The Odyssey.

The Watcher by the Threshold & Other Tales by John Buchan

This is a bit of a cheat because it’s a book I’m currently reading for my July Buchan of the Month. However, I’ve read a couple of the stories before in other collections and know they have a nicely supernatural feel.

Collected Ghost Stories by M. R. James

Reading, listening to or watching one of the great BBC adaptations of the ghost stories of M. R. James are an annual Christmas tradition in our house. Favourites include ‘The Mezzotint’, ‘Number 13’, ‘The Ash Tree’, ‘Casting the Runes’ and ‘The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral’.

The Visitor at Anningley Hall by Chris Thorndycroft

As a fan of M. R. James, it won’t be a surprise that this novella caught my eye. It’s a skilful prequel to one of the stories mentioned above, ‘The Mezzotint’.

In A German Pension: 13 Stories by Katherine Mansfield

Divided between vignettes of guests staying at the Pension, which are gently mocking in tone, and much darker stories that often have a sting in the tail, this collection is notable for the precision of the writing and its dark humour.

Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro

This is a great collection of stories that illustrate Munro’s gift for observation and ability to reveal the petty snobberies of small town life.

CWA Anthology of Short Stories: Mystery Tour edited by Martin Edwards

A conspiracy of prominent crime authors take readers on a world mystery tour with plenty of dead bodies along the way.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

Subtitled A Novel in Stories, the eponymous Olive is the main character in some of the stories but in others has the equivalent of a walk-on part. I found some of the stories bleak, many thought-provoking, others heart-warming and hopeful. But, in every case, I felt as though I was reading about real people.

Sherlock Holmes Short Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

So many of the famous stories – ‘The Red Headed League’, ‘The Copper Beeches’, ‘The Final Problem’ – are brought together in this fabulous collection.