Three women. One mission. Enemies everywhere.
May 1944. When spy Elisabeth de Mornay, code name Cécile, notices a coded transmission from an agent in the field does not bear his usual signature, she suspects his cover has been blown– something that is happening with increasing frequency. With the situation in Occupied France worsening and growing fears that the Resistance has been compromised, Cécile is ordered behind enemy lines.
Having rendezvoused with her fellow agents, Léonie and Dominique, together they have one mission: help the Resistance destabilise German operations to pave the way for the Normandy landings.
But the life of a spy is never straightforward, and the in-fighting within the Resistance makes knowing who to trust ever more difficult. With their lives on the line, all three women will have to make decisions that could cost them everything – for not all their enemies are German.
Resistance is the follow-up to Mara Timon’s debut novel City of Spies. Now, I’ve not read the first book but on the strength of the second I’ll definitely be adding it to the list.
It’s not often you get a really good strong female lead in a spy story, and in Resistance we have three! Elisabeth de Mornay is parachuted into France along with fellow agent Léonie to investigate suspicions that the Resistance has been compromised. De Mornay (codenamed Cécile) teams up with Dominique to help the Resistance prepare for the D-Day landings. Nothing is every quite straightforward though, of course.
This tense, atmospheric spy thriller keeps you on your toes from the very first page, with plenty of danger for our plucky SOE operatives. At times you could cut the tension with a knife (maybe Cécile’s trusty sgian dubh knife which she carries everywhere). Great cast of characters and a real sense of place and time give this book the edge that I look for in a thriller. There were plenty of references back to earlier events in City of Spies, but you could easily read this as a standalone, though I’m sure you’d get more out of it having read the earlier book. I definitely plan on going back to find out more about de Mornay’s adventures!
I really enjoyed this book (as you can probably tell!)
Highly recommended.
Resistance by Mara Timon is published by Zaffre. Many thanks to Zaffre and Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for inviting me to take part in the tour.
espresso coco 