Nora, Hazel, and Marie have been friends since boarding school. They
are still close and meet every Friday evening on the eve of WWII. The
three women are unusual for their time. Instead of having the ideal
of marriage, they want to work. Nora, a socialite, works for the
government in preparedness. Hazel is a match maker although her own
marriage has problems. Marie is a secretary in the German Department
at the university, a good fit to her fluent German.
Marie’s
nationality is the basis for the action in the story. As war
approaches, people of German nationality are looked on as dangerous
aliens. Marie fears that she will be sent to an interment camp. When
the notice of a review panel on her status arrives, the friends rally
round to help her.
The story is told in
two time periods. In the present, Samantha, Marie’s granddaughter,
comes to London to meet Nora. Marie is dead and in her will she wants
Samantha to take a package to Nora and deliver the eulogy at her
funeral. I thought the inclusion of Samantha was unnecessary. The
story worked very well in the WWII time period.
The women were all
strong. They acted out of principle and friendship in spite of danger
to themselves. The threat of the interment camp for Marie drove the
action. I was disappointed that there wasn’t much information about
the interment camps. I think it would have added to the book to have
a description of how they were run. The author’s note at the end
did give more information, and it was interesting, but it didn’t
affect the story.
I received this book
from Gallery Press for this review.
No comments:
Post a Comment