Medium – Book
About the Book – Sarah is a blond-haired, blue-eyed Jewish girl living in the heart of Nazi Germany. When trying to escape, her mother is killed at a roadblock and Sarah is left injured and lost, chased by dogs. She is taken in by Captain Jeremy Floyd, a spy for the British who is living as Helmut Haller, a wireless inventor. Sarah quickly impresses Captain Floyd with her brains and quick-thinking, and he asks whether she would like to be a spy. She ends up in a Nazi Boarding school with girls of Nazi high-ranking officers, and is given the task of getting close to them without them realising her true allegiences.
My Thoughts – This book is the debut novel for Matt Killeen and it is certainly a fast-moving and interesting start to a proposed series for the character of Sarah. The plot is interesting and not something that I have read before – an almost completely ‘female-run’ novel with one main male characters and the rest as supporting characters. There are some trigger warnings that people may need to be aware of – for implied rape and incest, quite graphic violence and swearing (in German!) The plot has a number of twists and turns and I found it one of those books where you never know quite what is going to happen next. It was an interesting point of view to have on the war as well – the German side, but working for the Allies, with all of the worries that went alongside that.
I found the two main characters pretty easy to like – Sarah and Captain Floyd. Sarah is extremely bright and clever, the daughter of an actress and a promising gymnast and pianist. She is very good at thinking herself out of a spot, but still betrays her youth and inexperience when trying to lie to Germans or when going to a banquet (where she gets very drunk). Captain Floyd is your typical surrogate father/mentor – middle-aged (although I have to admit to picturing him younger), working undercover for the British right in the middle of Germany. Their adventures are gory but believable. I found the other characters in the story less likable – some of them aren’t meant to be, but to be honest none of the other characters have really stuck with me.
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