Jackdaws (original 2001; edition 2009)

Review of Jackdaws by Ken Follett
If you are in love with World War II spy stories, Jackdaws is the book for you. Based on a true story, Jackdaws is the account of an all female British team of spies who parachute into France in 1944. Their mission is to blow up a chateau that houses a vital telephone system, used by the Germans, to pass critical information from France to the German command. Destroying the telephone system is vital to prevent the Germans from being able to warn Germany of the Allies impending landing on the beaches of Normandy.
The plot of Jackdaws is filled with breathtaking twists and turns with suspense waiting for you in every corner. If you want to relax with a good read, buy Jackdaws. ( )

A good, fast-paced tale, but not of the same caliber as Follett's best works like "The Key to Rebecca". The most interesting character turns out to be a Nazi. Perhaps a precurser to Quentin Tarantino's bad guy Nazi, Col. Lada, in "Inglorious Basterds". Perhaps Christopher Waltz could also play the Nazi in this book - if ever made into a movie. ( )

slow start - but once it took off - very engaging, fun read. Would make a great movie ( )

Jackdaws is an exciting espionage thriller set in World War II with a bit of a twist: it's about a team of British spies operating behind enemy lines, who are all women (including a couple of lesbians)...well, and one German transvestite.

The heroines are very interesting (particularly the transvestite), but Follett's greatest achievement in this novel is perhaps his villain, a German interrogator in charge of rooting out and breaking up the French resistance. He is not averse to using extreme brutal torture to extract information if necessary (and there is some very graphic violence in the novel, but with the Nazis as a subject that's pretty much inevitable), but he is extremely intelligent and would rather use trickery or emotional manipulation when those methods would serve the purpose. In fact, he finds the methods of his fellow Nazis rather distasteful.

At the same time, Follett portrays the lead heroine, Flick, as somewhat cold and steely, willing to kill the enemy in cold blood to protect her mission. Many writers today would use this juxtaposition to insinuate that the Nazis weren't such monsters as they are often made out to be and that the Allies were just as brutal and vicious. But in Follett's hands, the Nazi interrogator's supposed "scruples" are clearly rank hypocrisy which only serves to highlight the atrocious nature of the ends he pursues and the means he employs, while Flick's actions are underlain by a righteous determination not to suffer the guilt which rightly belongs to the aggressors against whom she fights. Very well done. ( )

Entertaining. Follett is always good for a serviceable potboiler. ( )