Courtney's War

Courtney’s War by Wilbur Smith with David Churchill   464 pages

I was attracted to this novel on the cover. I “think” it’s a Packard emblazoned with Nazi swastikas. I was even more excited when I won a copy from Bookishfirst.com. What the blub on Bookish didn’t mention was that this is the 17^th in the Courtney Family series. I blame myself; I should have done more research before I entered the contest. Live and learn.

The story begins in 1939 with Saffron Courtney meeting with her love, Luftwaffe air ace Gerhard von Meerbach, in Paris in the spring.  The know war is coming, yet cling to each other  as they would a life preserver if they were afloat in the ocean.

Smith bridges the gap between readers meeting the couple with this little paragraph: “In less than five months, in the early hours of Friday, September 1, 1939, Hitler unleashed the forces of Nazi Germany against Poland. Two days later, Great Britain declared was on Germany. And slaughter, suffering and horror exploded across the world.”

Smith then jumps to 1942. Saffron is trying to identify the agent who betrayed the British Special Operations spy network to the Nazis. Meanwhile, Gerhard is watching the beginning of the Final Solution as it is tested for high ranking Nazi officials. The images Smith evokes kept me awake for several nights.

Gerhard manages to survive the Battle of Stalingrad, but his anti-Nazi sentiments lead him to be thrown into Dachau. Will he survive the Hitler’s Final Solution?

The book is well-written; 130 million copies of his novels sold worldwide prove that he is a good writer. However, this isn’t a standalone novel. A lot of the time I felt lost when Smith delved into the characters’ backstories. I could not care about the characters at all.

Another thing that bothered me was that in the About the Author section, there is no mention of Smith’s co-author, David Churchill.  Is he related to Winston? Readers want to know things like this. Due to these reasons, “Courtney’s War” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.