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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Eva is a Russian émigre and is recruited into the British Secret Service shortly before WWII. She eventually ends up working first in Belgium, then in the USA planting propaganda in global media to try to encourage the USA to join the war effort. It turns out her lover and boss, Lucas Romer, has organised her death on one of her missions and she ends up running from him.
The story is told from the perspective of her daughter, Ruth, discovering her mothers past while they track down Lucas Romer together. Each chapter is split into two parts, the present, 1976 Scotland, and the past, 1939-1942. In the present part, Ruth is an EFL teacher and has some personal relationships with her students, her son Jochen, as well as Jochen's father, the father's brother, and his friend Ilse. None of this plot in the present actually plays much of a role in the main plot, except to build the character of Ruth.
The strongest character was probably Eva, partially because she participates in both time settings of the novel, but also because she actually just had the most interesting character. She is portrayed as scarred by her betrayal and forever on the lookout for someone coming for her. There's an interesting moment where she finally confronts Lucas saying, none of this would have happened if you didn't continue hunting me, to which Lucas replies, I don't know what you're talking about, having already said that they lost her in Canada. The novel's final scene portrays Eva with her binoculars on the lookout, despite almost all other characters from her war-time days already being dead.
I was a bit annoyed at how Ruth's relationships were seemingly meaningless, nothing ever came of Ilse and Ludger staying at her place and the whole Baader-Meinhof connection and the police looking for them. Nothing came of her relationship with Hamid, her student who was in love with her, and nothing came of her friendship with her friend whose name I can't remember. I guess her life is just a bit unremarkable and not that relevant to the spy plot.
Overall the read was pretty good, it had some pretty intense suspense at some points and never felt boring. It just felt a bit unpolished in terms of how fleshed out it was.
The story is told from the perspective of her daughter, Ruth, discovering her mothers past while they track down Lucas Romer together. Each chapter is split into two parts, the present, 1976 Scotland, and the past, 1939-1942. In the present part, Ruth is an EFL teacher and has some personal relationships with her students, her son Jochen, as well as Jochen's father, the father's brother, and his friend Ilse. None of this plot in the present actually plays much of a role in the main plot, except to build the character of Ruth.
The strongest character was probably Eva, partially because she participates in both time settings of the novel, but also because she actually just had the most interesting character. She is portrayed as scarred by her betrayal and forever on the lookout for someone coming for her. There's an interesting moment where she finally confronts Lucas saying, none of this would have happened if you didn't continue hunting me, to which Lucas replies, I don't know what you're talking about, having already said that they lost her in Canada. The novel's final scene portrays Eva with her binoculars on the lookout, despite almost all other characters from her war-time days already being dead.
I was a bit annoyed at how Ruth's relationships were seemingly meaningless, nothing ever came of Ilse and Ludger staying at her place and the whole Baader-Meinhof connection and the police looking for them. Nothing came of her relationship with Hamid, her student who was in love with her, and nothing came of her friendship with her friend whose name I can't remember. I guess her life is just a bit unremarkable and not that relevant to the spy plot.
Overall the read was pretty good, it had some pretty intense suspense at some points and never felt boring. It just felt a bit unpolished in terms of how fleshed out it was.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This one was just sort of there. Bounces back and forth between "present day" and WWII. I
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character