God Speed the Night
by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Jerome Ross
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Edgar Award Finalist: Hailed by the New York Times as "a book you will not readily forget," this World War II adventure tale of a nun who risks her life to help a Jewish couple escape Nazi-occupied France is the collaborative creative effort of Grand Master of crime fiction Dorothy Salisbury Davis and award-winning television writer Jerome Ross, It is harvest season in St. Hilaire, and for those who take their living from the land, it should be a joyous time. But in the fall of 1943, there show more is no joy in France. Paris has fallen, the Vichy government is collaborating with the Germans, and the Gestapo roam the countryside, conscripting French men to toil in faraway German factories. For Sister Gabrielle, a novice in the local convent, the occupation tries her faith as nothing has before. But she is about to get an opportunity to stand up to evil in a way that few of her countrymen have dared. Marc and Rachel Daridan arrive in St. Hilaire just a few steps ahead of the secret police and throw themselves on the mercy of Sister Gabrielle and the other nuns at the Convent of Ste. Geneviève. In a time when doing right can mean death, this devout young woman takes on a risky, seemingly impossible challenge. show lessTags
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I’ve been reading Dorothy Salisbury Davis’ novels, and I’m struck by how different they are from one another. The Judas Cat reminds me of a grown-up version of a Penny Parker mystery; A Death in the Life resembles an old-fashioned cozy; Scarlet Night is a heist tale the equal of Ocean’s Eleven, while Lullaby of Murder seems like something penned by Sidney Sheldon.
With God Speed the Night, Davis, in collaboration with Jerome Ross, veers in yet another direction: a World War II French Resistance novel. Sister Gabrielle, a novice at the Convent of Sainte Geneviève in St. Hilaire in Nazi-Occupied southern France, comes to the rescue of two Jews escaping from Paris, Marc and Rachel Daridan. With the help of the convent’s show more infirmarian, Sister Agathe; the Reverend Mother St. Charles, the convent’s mother superior; and René Labière, a photographer with the French Resistance, Sister Gabrielle manages to fool the cowardly Vichy prefect of police, Thèophile Moissac, and the Germans and carry out a daring rescue.
God Speed the Night ranks as my favorite of Davis’ novels so far. I couldn’t put it down, as cliché as that sounds. The suspense as to how this naïve, quiet nun would fare in a cat-and-mouse game with the despicable, self-deluding Moissac kept me glued to this excellent novel. show less
With God Speed the Night, Davis, in collaboration with Jerome Ross, veers in yet another direction: a World War II French Resistance novel. Sister Gabrielle, a novice at the Convent of Sainte Geneviève in St. Hilaire in Nazi-Occupied southern France, comes to the rescue of two Jews escaping from Paris, Marc and Rachel Daridan. With the help of the convent’s show more infirmarian, Sister Agathe; the Reverend Mother St. Charles, the convent’s mother superior; and René Labière, a photographer with the French Resistance, Sister Gabrielle manages to fool the cowardly Vichy prefect of police, Thèophile Moissac, and the Germans and carry out a daring rescue.
God Speed the Night ranks as my favorite of Davis’ novels so far. I couldn’t put it down, as cliché as that sounds. The suspense as to how this naïve, quiet nun would fare in a cat-and-mouse game with the despicable, self-deluding Moissac kept me glued to this excellent novel. show less
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30+ Works 638 Members
Dorothy Salisbury Davis was born on April 25, 1916. She received a degree in literature from Barat College in 1938. In the depths of the Depression, she got a job as a magician's assistant. She later worked in public relations for a meatpacking company before becoming an author. During her lifetime, she wrote 17 crime novels, three historical show more novels, and many short stories. Her works included A Gentle Murderer, the Julie Hayes Mysteries series, and Black Sheep, White Lamb. She received a lifetime achievement award from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1986, she helped found Sisters in Crime. She died on August 3, 2014 at the age of 98. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
2 Works 23 Members
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- Original publication date
- 1968
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- Members
- 18
- Popularity
- 1,387,650
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (5.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 2
