Blitz: 3 (Rook Files)

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When I first had the idea of writing about the six remarkable women who pioneered the way for female war journalists, it wasn’t just their personal stories that drew me in but the chance to learn more about WW2 itself. They are not all wealthy, they are not all high-born, and we watch them as they try to adapt to wartime conditions and deprivations. Even the most minor characters come to life, as they adjust to both the bureaucracy of the wartime BBC and the realities of life during the Blitz. This could have been two books, and at times, it felt like it should have been, because so much is on page, and yet sometimes it felt like the stories slowed down.

During the London Blitz, Bridget and Usha are apprentices to Lady Carmichael, one of the heads of the Chequy. I could taste the brick dust, smell the smoke and feel the fear of the countless heroes who exposed themselves to any and every sort of danger. I relate so much to their struggles with everyday life, and trying to fit an investigation around romance or vice versa, often during wartime. Growing up near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, I was aware that the city had historical significance but also that it wasn’t particularly famous, at least to people from outside the region.Unable to provide an alibi and determined to prove her innocence, she flees, venturing into the London underworld to find answers. It was there in the films we watched, in the comics my brothers read, and in my vague understanding of what it meant to be British.

Violating strict rules against interfering with normal military operations (as opposed to warding off supernatural enemies), the headstrong Pamela breaks away from her cohorts and causes the plane to implode by sending a ferocious pulse through it. As Churchill prepares to take over the leadership of the nation, Lucy finds herself increasingly involved in her famous employer's phenomenal work output and eccentric habits. This entry features dual timelines, one one took a little longer to win me over, but the other I could have spent more time with and yet, by the end it works. Women made up the majority of workers in Oak Ridge during World War II, and for decades afterward, their stories were generally viewed as less important than male-dominated narratives of the war. For those uninitiated into the word of the golden age of children’s literature, that is a description of ‘A Little Princess’ by Frances Hodgson Burnett.There were many sections in both stories that felt like narrative padding: Lyn’s whole time at the Estate, for example, just felt like a way to kill time why Bridget’s story was evolving. it is very rare that both story lines are interesting but also very rare that both are dreadfully boring and guess what? One thing that I absolutely love about these books is that O'Malley will always mix in these stories about famous (or infamous) operatives and manifestations in the current story. This book was gripping from the first page, I knew it was going to be good – but it sort of didn’t live up to that expectation throughout the book, unfortunately.