Three Hours in Paris
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3.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
In June of 1940, when Paris fell to the Nazis, Hitler spent a total of three hours in the City of Light—abruptly leaving, never to return. To this day, no one knows why.
Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assignment: assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta, and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When Kate misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life—all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up.
New York Times bestselling author Cara Black is at her best as she brings Occupation-era France to vivid life in this masterful, pulse-pounding story about one young woman with the temerity—and drive—to take on Hitler himself.
*Features an illustrated map of 1940s Paris as full color endpapers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In October 1939, American Kate Rees, the heroine of this riveting standalone from bestseller Black (the Aim e Leduc series), is living with her naval engineer husband and baby daughter at Scapa Flow, the Royal Navy base in Scotland's Orkney Islands. After her husband and daughter die during the German U-boat attack on the battleship Royal Oak, Kate becomes obsessed with defeating Hitler. Her rifle skills, learned as a girl hunting in Oregon, earn her a place in a British intelligence operation to assassinate Hitler. In June 1940, with little training, she parachutes into Paris, where Hitler is making a brief visit. Kate gets Hitler in her crosshairs, but her shot misses and she goes on the run. Hitler orders the regular German police and the Gestapo to catch the sniper within 36 hours. Despite numerous obstacles and the realization that no plan was made for her safe return, Kate is determined to make her way to London. Black keeps the suspense high throughout. Fans of The Day of the Jackal won't want to miss this heart-stopping thriller.
Customer Reviews
Meh
Author
American. Now late sixties. Best selling and award winning mystery writer. 18 novels featuring contemporary Paris private investigator Amiée Leduc. This, Ms Black's latest, is a stand alone novel set in WW2 Paris in the immediate aftermath of German occupation.
In brief
Hitler visited Paris for three hours in June 1940 for reasons unknown, and never returned. With advance warning of the trip, British intelligence and recruited an American markswoman, as you would, to do a Frederick Forsyth on him when he visits a church. Annie Oakley, no sorry, I mean Kate Rees, has skin in the game having recently lost her husband and child to a Luftwaffe bombing raid on the Orkneys! (Serves 'em right for being there) The Führer bends down to speak to a kid at the critical moment, and Annie drills some random Admiral instead. There follows an incident-packed 36 hour pursuit of the sniper by an ex-Bavarian police detective now in a uniform of a different kind. Despite her lack of training in matters covert, our gal keeps outsmarting baddies who are supposed to know what they are doing.
Writing
Clear, competent prose but the protagonist and the plot required more willing suspension of belief than I had to give. Ms Black knows plenty about the seamy side of the City of Light, not so much about WW2 methinks.
Bottom line
Meh