Lying With the Enemy Book

This book took a long time to get rolling. Until I got to page 112, I was reconsidering my choice and wondering if, locale and time period notwithstanding, I would have to make this a DNF. Then things really started to sizzle.

The Channel Islands were the only part of England to be occupied by the Germans during WWII. There were a lot of difficult issues to navigate here. Homes were commandeered (i.e., stolen) for the officers and anything that might allow contact with the outside world was confiscated. Being "nice" to a German soldier who fancied you might mean a bit more food on the table for your family, at a time when food was extraordinarily scarce. Fraternizing with the Todt slave laborers (or, "the foreigns," as they're called here, could get you sent to the camps.

In the midst of all this are several characters: Ned, who is a civilian police officer just trying to stay out of trouble; Lentsch, a German officer who would like nothing more than to have all of this be over with; the denizens of the Hallivand estate, with their own secrets and grudges. And then there are the girls. Sometimes young ladies in love; sometimes young ladies who see an opportunity. No matter - it usually won't go well for them in the end. Either they'll upset the wrong officer and "disappear," or they'll be ostracized by the other Islanders, or both. It's a very difficult line to cross.

Given that this, by the end, is a very tightly-woven mystery, there's not a lot I can say about it without unwittingly giving clues as to how it turns out. It is a high compliment indeed to say that, in this 360 page book, I didn't know what the heck was going on until page 355. So carefully conceived was the plot, and so seemingly random were the threads, that it was almost a complete garment before I caught on. Only the slow start cost it its 5th star.