Jackdaws

Jackdaws by Ken Follett tells the story of an all-female group of British spies who helped change the outcome of World War II.

Felicity "Flick" Clairet is an agent with the Special Operations Executive. She is responsible for helping the French Resistance fight the Nazis by sabotage.

With the Bollinger group Flick attacks a building that house most of the phone lines the Nazis are using to communicate through out France. But MI6 intelligence underestimated the number of gestapo in the building.

Not only did they fail to take out communications, but most of her team is either killed or captured.

The Resistance members who were captured are to be questioned by Franck Dieter - the man Rommel put in charge of stopping the sabotage.

When Flick gets back to England, she will not let her friends' death be for naught. She proposes taking the same building with an all female team. They can sneak in because no one pays attention to women. If they succeed it will give the Allies the advantage they need as they invade France to push the Nazis back to Germany and maybe win the war.

Follett is the master of taking one line of fact and creating a plausible, thrilling story around it. This is a must read for any WWII, espionage, or political thriller fans. It is the best WWII espionage novel I have read since The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva.

Follett, Ken (2001). Jackdaws. New York: Dutton Books.