Jane Healey might be becoming one of my go-to authors – I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read by her so far, though all of them are from basically the same WWII era, and shortly after (which seems to dominate the historical fiction space). But I love how meticulous her research is, and I especially enjoy the segments at the end where she tells the reader where she got her ideas, what’s true, and what’s made up for the sake of the story.
This story follows actress Drue Leyton, whom I’d never heard of before–apparently she was famous enough in her day, though, that her fame was a major driver of the plot. She married a Frenchman and was living in Paris during WWII, before the German occupation. When her husband was sent off to war, she stayed behind, and did a radio broadcast back to America in the middle of the night, describing what was going on in Paris. At first it was apolitical, but as time went on, she and her boss became increasingly bold–particularly once Paris was overrun. In the process, she painted a target on her back, and was on a list of Americans whom the Germans intended to execute, if they had the chance. But they wouldn’t bother to threaten her if she wasn’t a threat: her show had the ear of the president, and she and her team hoped to influence the Americans to join the war efforts.
The story doesn’t follow the typical story trajectory, because it’s real life. There’s a bit of romance, but not much. Mostly it’s about Drue’s courage, and how standing by her principles no matter the cost helped her to make a difference, in her own small way.
My rating: ****1/2
Language: none
Sexual content: none
Violence: historical only
Political content: historical only (which is nice, a lot of historical novels nevertheless manage to insert anachronistic political ideas in there. Some of Healey’s have before, too.)
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