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"I'm afraid you're right," agreed Worrals sadly. "Excitement is like a drug. The more you have the more you want, and when you can't get it the old nerves begin to twitch."
Since Worrals acquitted herself so well in the last two books, she's asked if she'd be willing to fly a tiny unarmed plane with foldable wings (the better to hide it) to occupied France so she can fly messages back from a French spy network. Naturally, she brings Frecks. (Poor Frecks, no authorities ever seem to think she was the key to victory even though she often is.)
Worrals and Frecks set up at a decrepit chateau, which they are nonplussed to discover is also inhabited by 1) their main contact, a depressed and apathetic old man, 2) his not-all-there son given to frequent fits of maniacal laughter, 3) an unexpected squad of Nazis. Not what you want when the only place you have to park your airplane is the chateau's immense wine cellar...
Homing pigeons, presumed dead, atmospherically melancholy chateaux, death by antique crossbow, and a Gestapo officer disguised as a nun: this book has it all. It's particularly good with spy vs spy shenanigans. At one point Worrals muses that of five people in a room, all but maybe one were using false identities. Later, we have an English spy pretending to be a German spy pretending to be an English spy.
( Read more... )
Like the other Worrals books I've read, this one is not only implicitly but explicitly feminist. While Worrals is perfectly willing to use Nazi preconceptions about women to her advantage, she does not tolerate anyone on her own side viewing women as less capable than men or implying that her success was due to chivalry rather her own efforts.
Johns has a surprisingly good understanding of what it's like to be a minority in this context and have to simultaneously deal with risking your life, not being allowed to do things solely because of your gender, having some people assume you're not as good as a man and others try to overprotect you, and, in particularly low moments, wondering whether maybe everyone is right about what women can and can't do.
It's accurate to describe the Worrals books as "Biggles, but with women," but it's equally accurate to describe them as "Biggles, but on extra-hard mode." I assume through conversations with his female pilot buddies on whom he based the characters, Johns has a surprisingly sensitive understanding that Worrals and Frecks can do everything Biggles and his crew can do, but they have to do it backwards and in high heels.
Possibly relatedly, Worrals and Frecks have yet to actually kill anyone, though they've both made very solid efforts in that direction. (In the first book Worrals shoots down a plane but the pilot survives, in this one a male ally kills the Nazi before Frecks can brain him with a poker, etc.) I wonder if that was a bridge too far for Johns' publishers? It really doesn't seem like Johns himself would have a problem with it. Frecks is ferocious in up-close combat, and Worrals has the cool nerve of a fighter pilot.
The ebook includes the original illustrations, of which my favorite is a Gestapo officer disguised as a nun. You can obtain it for free at Faded Page
Since Worrals acquitted herself so well in the last two books, she's asked if she'd be willing to fly a tiny unarmed plane with foldable wings (the better to hide it) to occupied France so she can fly messages back from a French spy network. Naturally, she brings Frecks. (Poor Frecks, no authorities ever seem to think she was the key to victory even though she often is.)
Worrals and Frecks set up at a decrepit chateau, which they are nonplussed to discover is also inhabited by 1) their main contact, a depressed and apathetic old man, 2) his not-all-there son given to frequent fits of maniacal laughter, 3) an unexpected squad of Nazis. Not what you want when the only place you have to park your airplane is the chateau's immense wine cellar...
Homing pigeons, presumed dead, atmospherically melancholy chateaux, death by antique crossbow, and a Gestapo officer disguised as a nun: this book has it all. It's particularly good with spy vs spy shenanigans. At one point Worrals muses that of five people in a room, all but maybe one were using false identities. Later, we have an English spy pretending to be a German spy pretending to be an English spy.
( Read more... )
Like the other Worrals books I've read, this one is not only implicitly but explicitly feminist. While Worrals is perfectly willing to use Nazi preconceptions about women to her advantage, she does not tolerate anyone on her own side viewing women as less capable than men or implying that her success was due to chivalry rather her own efforts.
Johns has a surprisingly good understanding of what it's like to be a minority in this context and have to simultaneously deal with risking your life, not being allowed to do things solely because of your gender, having some people assume you're not as good as a man and others try to overprotect you, and, in particularly low moments, wondering whether maybe everyone is right about what women can and can't do.
It's accurate to describe the Worrals books as "Biggles, but with women," but it's equally accurate to describe them as "Biggles, but on extra-hard mode." I assume through conversations with his female pilot buddies on whom he based the characters, Johns has a surprisingly sensitive understanding that Worrals and Frecks can do everything Biggles and his crew can do, but they have to do it backwards and in high heels.
Possibly relatedly, Worrals and Frecks have yet to actually kill anyone, though they've both made very solid efforts in that direction. (In the first book Worrals shoots down a plane but the pilot survives, in this one a male ally kills the Nazi before Frecks can brain him with a poker, etc.) I wonder if that was a bridge too far for Johns' publishers? It really doesn't seem like Johns himself would have a problem with it. Frecks is ferocious in up-close combat, and Worrals has the cool nerve of a fighter pilot.
The ebook includes the original illustrations, of which my favorite is a Gestapo officer disguised as a nun. You can obtain it for free at Faded Page
