This is conundrum of a story, but don’t let that put you off.
Four stories in one, all set in different time periods, all integral to the main story, and all charging to a brilliant conclusion.
During the war.
The Huntress. A killer, a woman working for, or in sympathy, with the German SS during World War Two. A woman who has escaped the war crimes hearings in Nuremberg.
Nina Markov. A Russian woman with a passion for flying. One of Stalin’s famous Night Witches. A woman with a very good reason for finding the Huntress.
After the war
Ian and Tony, two men who specialise in finding war criminals and bringing them to trial, but one woman is right at the top of Ian’s list. The Huntress was responsible for killing his brother, and he wants to see her face her crimes.
Jordan McBride. A young woman in America dreaming of becoming a photographer covering wars around the world. Her father, a widow has a new woman in his life, Anneliese, a woman that Jordan is convinced is a not telling the truth about her past.
This story is magnificent in the way it is told. The storylines of all of the main characters interweave from start to finish. The way the author establishes the crimes committed by the Huntress during the war is clever.
Introducing Nina as one of the famous Night Witches of the Soviet Aviation Group 122 is perfect for the story. I thought I was good on my Second World War history, but I’d never heard of this group. A quick Google search led me down an internet wormhole that lasted for hours whilst I read about this extraordinary group of woman.
Tony’s story, and the story about the tracking down of the illusive Huntress after the war, is the main backbone of the book and it is one of those tales which has you reading well into the night.
But will you guess the end of the story? Is everybody who they appear to be? Are the allegiances that are formed all they seem to be. Will the Huntress get caught?
There’s only one way to find out. Read the book, and I have to say it’s up there in my best books read this year.
Pages: 560
Publisher: Harper Collins
Available now.
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