Bettie's Books

Read by Kate Reading. Unabridged, on 9 1/2 Tapesblurb from Publishers Weekly- Time is running out. With D-Day rapidly approaching, the Nazis are actively trying to quash the French resistance. Meanwhile, Britain's Special Operations branch is working hard to supply the resistance with intelligence, supplies and agents. Felicity "Flick" Clairet is one of England's most effective operatives in northern France. Having failed in an assault on the Nazis' main European telephone exchange, she regroups in England for another attempt, this time with an all-female team that will infiltrate the exchange under the guise of a French cleaning staff. Unfortunately, finding female agents fluent in French proves impossible and Flick resorts to crash-training nonprofessionals for the task. Imagine Charlie's Angels (minus the campiness) in The Guns of Navarone. Written in Follett's (Pillars of the Earth, etc.) riveting style and with his penchant for historical detail, the Jackdaws (the codename of the all-girl team) are given a heightened air of authenticity with Kate Reading's performance. She flavors her confident delivery with a wry cynicism that is inherent to Flick's character, and her use of international as well as regional accents keeps the rapid narrative flowing flawlessly.Shamelessly nicking the tagline: the female dirty dozenIf I was cynical I could say this may be Follett's very own recurring wet dream:A dozen females in dress-upS & MGratuitous sexNazi goose-steppersSounds like that Mel Brookes filmscript doesn't it. And if not that, maybe it would have been a strong contender for the Benny Hill-esque Chase Scene or toned down this could be an assignment for Charlie's original trio.All that said, this was rather good, taut and exciting, however it was hard to keep concentrating with all these asides my brain wanted to fling at me.ETA - hah! scanning through the reviews here I'm not alone with the brain-swerve into jocularity as there is a reference to 'allo 'allo