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Title: Jackdaws by Ken Follett, Barbara Rosenblat, Colin Stinton ISBN: 0-14-280002-3 Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks Pub. Date: 01 December, 2001 Format: Audio CD Volumes: 5 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (125 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: A Stretch
Comment: This is not Follett's best work. The plot is just not plausible. We have a group of untrained woman posing as commandos. After receiving several days of training in England, they are told to parachute into France with the task of destroying the central communication exchange link between France and Germany just prior to the D-Day invasion. The commandos include two lesbians, a transevestite and a convict paroled to participate in this dubious exercise.
The leader and heroine of this "Dirty Dozen" type group is Flick Clairet. Her main foe is a German officer named Dieter Franck.
Follett's character development of Dieter and the other Germans reminded me of the people in "Hogans Heros". They are distracted with fronification (Dieters French girfriend), Dieters "migraine" headaches and poor communications among themselves. Additionally, the Germans are constantly one step behind Flick and the French resistance.
The movie based on this book should include Jodie Foster as Flick. Maybe she can bring Hannibal with her to tortue the resistance along with Dieter.
Please save your money on this one and read Pillars of the Earth by Follett. That is an excellent read compared to Jackdaws.
Rating: 4
Summary: Generally good espionage novel leaves an odd feeling
Comment: Ken Follett has been doing this sort of thing for years. His best work, other than perhaps the atypical historical novel The Pillars of the Earth, has been set in World War II, with Nazi and Allied spies chasing one another across the battlefields and occupied countries of the war. This latest entry starts with a shootout between French partisans, led by a British agent, and Germans at a communications center in occupied Normandy. The action takes place on the eve of D-Day, and the attack fails. The leader, however, is a determined woman named Felicity (Flick) Clairet, and she's one stubborn lady. She decides to try again, more subtly.
The action of the book follows Flick through her return to England, recruiting a very different team of irregular operatives to perform the mission, and their subesequent adventures in France. It alternates between this and the activities of a Nazi intelligence officer, a former policeman named Dieter Franck. Dieter is determined to stop the invasion and catch Flick, who he thinks can lead him to various resistance leaders in France.
The problem with the book, such as it is, is a strange one. The author seems unclear as to whether the Nazis are evil or not, as a group. Franck definitely isn't motivated by any animus towards Jews or anything, he merely wishes to protect Germany from invaders, and is willing to do things like torture people in order to achieve his goal. He has a beautiful French Jew for a girlfriend, and throws himself on her to shield her body when there's shooting, so you know he's attached to her. This creates a strange atmosphere for the novel: there's a sort of moral equivalence that's a bit distasteful. My wife tried the audio of this some time ago, and tells me that she had trouble caring about any of the characters, and stopped listening to the story before she finished it.
With that one (big) misgiving aside, this is a good book, and very well written. It's definitely worth the effort.
Rating: 4
Summary: Classified WW2 mission
Comment: Ken Follett's "Jackdaws" is a decent WW2 action tale, a subject he is obviously enamored with. The time is late May 1944, days prior to the Allied invasion at Normandy. Headquartered in a chateau in Sainte-Cecile near the French cathedral city of Reims was the hub of a vast telecommuncations network funneling radio and telephone messages through occupied France to the Fatherland. Crippling this network would provide a huge advantage to the invading Allied forces. The French Resistance had been unsuccessful in an attempt to sabotage the chateau, resulting in the death or capture of almost the entire Bollinger Resistance group. The group was led by ex professor Michel Clairet. His wife, Felicity, known as Flick was also among the group. Flick Clairet was a British major in the SOE (Special Operations Executive), acting as an undercover liason between the English and the French Resistance. Flick was well schooled in weaponry, espionage, French culture and was fluent in French.
Luckily escaping a Gestapo dragnet after the failure at Saint-Cecile, Flick made her way back to England. While there a plan was formulated by the SOE to have Flick lead an all female team back into France to again try to destroy the communication center at Saint Cecile. Five French speaking English women were recruited to parachute into France and pose as a cleaning crew that serviced the chateau on a daily basis. Included in the group which was code named Jackdaws was a demolitions expert and a telephone engineer.
The biggest obstacle facing the team was German major Dieter Franck, a wily, calculating intelligence officer with expertise in interrogation and torture. His suspicions were heightened after the aborted attempt on the chateau. Franck using every resource at his disposal was obsessed in capturing Flick and her minions and protecting Saint-Cecile.
The story goes back and forth between Flick and Franck chronicling their trials and tribulations as they both move to fulfill the objectives of their repective missions.
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Title: Hornet Flight by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451210743 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Code to Zero by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451204530 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 31 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Triple by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451163540 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Key to Rebecca by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451163494 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Man from St. Petersburg (#1 Author's Classic Spy Thriller) by Ken Follett ISBN: 0451163516 Publisher: Signet Book Pub. Date: 01 March, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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