- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan; First Edition edition (7 Dec 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333783026
- ISBN-13: 978-0333783023
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 790,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Jackdaws
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Ken Follett has made his mark as one of the most assured thriller writers in the business, and although his form has faltered of late, Jackdaws shows that he's lost none of his steely skill. The time is May 1944, and Follett takes us into the provincial French town of Sainte-Cecile, suffering under the Nazi yoke for several years as the novel begins. Follett's heroine is the resourceful "Flick", whose real name is Felicity Clairet. She is English, and honoured throughout the town as the wife of Michel, who heads the Resistance circuit based in Rheims. During the day, Flick performs first aid for the townspeople; by night she risks her life alongside her husband in the Resistance.
Flick has to persuade herself that she is ready for her most important mission: to inaugurate a fighting team for an attack on a château used as a key Gestapo base--her team (all women, with one exception) are the eponymous "jackdaws". This fresh concept is carried off with the kind of effortless skill that was the distinguishing feature of Follett's best books, and his protagonist Flick is a distinctive, unusual creation. --Barry Forshaw
Review
Two weeks before D-Day an attack by the French Resistance on a telephone exchange vital to the Germans fails against the heavily guarded building. A young British secret agent plans to parachute into France with an all female team known as the Jackdaws to penetrate the building but a ruthless German intelligence colonel is on her trail.
--This text refers to the
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This was my first Ken Follett's book and I could not put it down. It is basically the story of a group of women wanting to do their bit for the war. Nothing is straightforward in this story, it can be amusing at times but also very emotional. The atmosphere of the resistance is very well rendered, the pace of the book is excellent and never is the reader bored. It also has psychological qualities, the characters especially Major Dieter Frank is full of contradictions. This shows that whether one is French, German or English, one is a human being.The research is well done and the reader is made to participate to the mission in whichever character he/she might want to identify.
I cannot wait to read more from this author.
A French reader
I cannot wait to read more from this author.
A French reader
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An exciting and very interesting story about an all-female SOE team with a daring mission to disable a key German communication centre in France on the eve of D-day. The team leader is the determined Flick Clairet who has to battle good old-fashioned sexism as well as the Gestapo to achieve her goal. The book has come out at just the right time with so much publicity about the role of female agents in WW2 with the release of the film 'Charlotte Gray'. Ken Follett has really done his homework and 'Jackdaws' takes you into the lives of agents, the Resistance, and the German soldiers and Gestapo. Highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first book I have read by the author Ken Follet. I have always had an interest in WW2 history, which was one of the reasons why I was attracted to this book.
It is an excellent story about a team of all female SOE spies sent by England, in the lead up to the D Day invasion, to blow up a vital communication exchange in Nazi occupied France. Although it is not actually based on any fact, the authors style makes it seem as though the events actually took place.
In the past, I have read lots of hardened crime thrillers so was not adverse to gory descriptions of death or violence. However, I could not stop my stomach from turning, as the author described some of the torture techniques used by the German Gestapo. I could not help but feel respect and humbleness for the people that were actually subjected to torture a thousand times worse during WW2.
This all added to making the story much more readable and in my opinion compelling, but also made me reflex on just how senseless war can be, but unavoidable in certain circumstances.
I was eagerly awaiting the chance to read the next chapter in order to find out whether the girls would get away with the operation and escape with their lives. My only criticism was the ending, which was short and swift, as is often the case with many books. It’s as though authors have spent many months working on building up a great story, only to rush the end through to get the book to publication. I often favor authors who provide a chapter as an epilogue, to wind down after the action has subsided.
Having said this, I highly recommend this book and will now be buying others by this excellent author.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book
Brilliant book!! It is a fantastic piece of fiction based around the Special Operations Executive...... I would definitely recommend this book!
Published 16 days ago by amazonbuyer
An easy, enjoyable and escapist read
Ken Follett has become one of my guilty pleasures - and this accessible spy/wartime thriller ticked all the boxes for an easy, enjoyable and escapist read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alison McVey
A real page turner
Jackdaws is the stoy a young female British secret agent in WW11 called Flick, who parachutes into France with a team of five female agents in order to carry out a daring raid on a... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Robin Webster
Why we buy books...this sort of story
Follett is a master and a best seller for a reason: he knows how to craft every book like it is his last and every chapter like it is the whole story. Read more
Published 2 months ago by London Matron
A good read!
I was skeptical about this book at first because of the mixed reviews. However I started to read it and got hooked. The character Dieter got me hooked to book. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Bridge
WWII drama with personality
For those who liked the Eye of the Needle, this another well-paced drama set in the same era. The story line is as much about the characters and their interactions as the main plot... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Fairporter
Excellent
As usual, Ken Follett delivers. Great plot and exciting pageturner. The best thing about Follett is that he does not stay in one country, age or storyline so every book has a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by R.W, Nottingham, England
Not one of his best
I love Ken Follett books and have always enjoyed them. Jackdaws starts off briskly and soon draws you in to the story, but about half way through, it all seems to get a bit... Read more
Published 12 months ago by P. M. Ashby
Easy to read well written historical drama
I am quite new to Ken Follett, having only recently read Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, both of which really caught my imagination. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Philip Walker
A real stinker
I am no literary snob, and enjoy reading fiction of all kinds, but I really did think this was complete rubbish. Read more
Published 13 months ago by S. Walby
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