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Summary: Nancy Drew wins WWII
Review: While the style of this book is reminiscent of Follett's stellar "Eye of the Needle", it is a poor story, more poorly written. Many of Follett's novels maintain a stream of reality and snippets of history throughout the text. In Jackdaws, reality or realism is abandoned in favor of a romp through the same make-believe world that Dorothy found in Oz. I can find Dorothy, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man, but I have yet to identify Toto. By the end of the book, I truly hoped Dorothy (a.k.a. Flick) would break a nail, at least. Sorry Ken, a "girl-scout" troupe with no training and less discipline, did not win the war. Who is the hero or heroine here? Is this a study in the moral ambiguity of war, or ethical relativism? Flick is ultimately not a likable character; after a fair start in the book, she turns out to be more mercenary than the Gestapo. The writing follows this incoherent tone throughout. One chapter ends with blood and guts, while the next starts with high tea and a discussion of dress hemming. This is not artistic or dramatic contrast, it's just bad. The character that comes closest to being a real and believable person is Dieter Franck. He of course is the evil Nazi antagonist, I think? Therein lies one of the most significant problems with the book. Dieter could actually be the hero, who many times his struggles with real professional and emotional dilemmas, evokes sympathy. But he's on the wrong side? In the meantime, Flick, who I believe Follett means to be the heroine, is shallow, self-absorbed, and really unlikable. In the end, the reader is left totally unsatisfied by the story and unhappy with Follett's stumbling text. Only those who really want to read another "Nazis bad-British good" comic book will find enjoyment here.
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Summary: A MUST BUY !
Review: Riveting, suspensful, can't put it down. One of the best mysteries to come along in a long time.
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Summary: Thrill Ride
Review: Reading Ken Follett's 'Jackdaws' is like riding a wild roller coaster with unexpected turns, dips and twists. Felicity Clairet, otherwise know as Flick, leads a rookie team of female agents into Nazi-occupied France just before D-Day to blow-up a critical target. Her advesary in a relentless game of can & mouse is Major Dieter Franck, a clever and cruel army detective. Over a 10 day period the reader ducks, winces and twitches through intense suspense. Major Franck is a gem - a sadistic interrogator with an occasional conscience. His chapters are so intriguing, they tip the balance of reader interest early in the book. However, when the Jackdaw team reaches France, Flick draws even with the major and novel accellerates. Like all great roller coasters, you don't want it to end. 'Jackdaws' is a true thrill ride. Buckle your seat belts and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: The book reminded me of Ken Follet's earlier books, ex Eye of the Needle, Key to Rebecca. I was pleased to see that he has returned to his original style of writing. I very much enjoyed the book. It only took me a couple of days to read. I would recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: fun reading, but not a 5 star!!
Review: I just finished reading this new Ken Follet, and I am not really sure what to say. I really liked it, I liked the idea of an all female resistance team, but something just missed the mark. The action was great, and kept my interest, but I really started out liking it more than I did when I finished it.In other words, great lead in, not enough follow up. I felt like Mr. Follet skimped on character details or something, I just never felt really invested in the characters, just invested in their mission. I gave if 4 star instead of 3, just because it is Ken Follet, and if you are an espionage fan, you should read this. However, I don't think it is his best.
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Summary: Passion and patriotism in WW II clandestine work
Review: At a time when the CIA and Special Forces are fighting the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and terrorists, patriotism and heroism is back in style. Ken Follet takes us back to a romanticized version from fifty years ago, with a thriller about espionage, Resistance fighters, SOE, MI5, Gestapo, and the SS. This is a very familiar setting and theme. Fifteen years ago, Larry Collins' "Fall from grace" did an excellent job of creating for the reader a cat-and-mouse game of spies, agents, and Resistance fighters attempting to pave the way for D-Day. It remains a definitive piece of Resistance fiction. And the "Dirty Dozen" film earned worldwide popularity with its collection of misfits taking on the German elite in their lair. "Jackdaws" is a rich blend of both of these, with the usual dashing, handsome and beautiful, sexy, multilingual, heroic, tormented yet highly motivated characters on both sides of the conflict. Follett makes full use of our fascination and respect for people who for the right reasons put themselves into terrible situations, fictional, semi-fictional or historically accurate. Some readers have and will decry the chauvinist or simply politically incorrect use of the strange group of women Follett assembled to sabotage the critical German communications link immediately before D-Day. For me, it is another interesting twist on an old, oft-worked theme. Sure, Follett's lesbian characters are drawn with a man's hand, but authors have always struggled to reach outside their own experiences, even if stereotypes necessarily result. And scenarios stretch reality, but fiction has that right as well. Jack Higgins used to do a good job with this genre, before he went over to more modern times and the IRA. Follett remains a first-class writer of World War-based fiction. And "Jackdaws" will not disappoint.
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Summary: Jackdaws
Review: Ken Follett’s latest novel ‘Jackdaws’(I love this title)turns to WW2 and a little known organization that goes by the acronym SOE. It’s the week before D-Day. 28-year-old Felicity ‘Flick’ Clairet, an agent for the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which specializes in sabotage behind enemy lines, is in charge of destroying an important telephone exchange station in France. After the first mission fails she returns to London to look for recruits for a brave new plan that will take them into the exchange itself. These recruits will be comprised of nothing but females (and quite a group this turns out to be). Dieter Franck is the German, working under Rommel, who is set out to stop the resistance movement. He soon becomes Flick’s archenemy. Dieter is a skilled interrogator and a ruthless torturer who has a knack of getting the truth out of his enemies. The cat and mouse scenario between Flick and Dieter drives this novel to its very satisfying conclusion. It has an odd assortment of characters, some you’ll like and some you’ll hate. This is not one of Follett’s more memorable novels but it is still worth your time if you’re a fan. The plot didn’t really draw me in until the second half of the book, and that’s when it grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go. I will continue to be a Follett fan. Recommended.
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Summary: JackDaws--Birds of Different Feathers vs Nazis
Review: This is an excellent book of its genre, satisfying throughout and VERY well researched. Although other reviews castigate the author for imagining that women could successfully operate undercover in WWII France, the truth is that many did. Follett has taken a real story and changed it enough for fictional uses, and the main characters are believable--except, perhaps, for their stunning looks. NO undercover agent has remarkable looks--the idea is to blend in, not stand out. And I DO quibble with the range of female stereotypes that make up the Jackdaws. Perhaps this is because the author is male, but I think it's more likely that he didn't wish to spend too much time fleshing them out. Yet the principal characters, and many of the secondary and tertiary, are firmly drawn and realized. The plotting is generally deft and sure. Though the dramatic moments in the last third are predictable, given the requirements of the genre, Follett still manages to keep the tension high. I particularly like the anti-climax, regarding medals; all workers in a bureaucracy will recognize its realism. As for the explicit torture routines--how can you write about Nazi interrogations and not include this, especially if you wish to convey what's at stake, personally, for the protagonists. Readers may not realize it, but Follett refrained from meticulously describing the horrific sights, smells, and sounds of such horrors. In sum, a good, solid "read" worth the money.
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Summary: Follett has done it again
Review: This is a remarkable book. It begins with the assertion" Exactly fifty women were sent into France as secret agents by the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. Of those, thirty-six survived the war. The other fourteen gave their lives. This book is dedicated to all of them."
b
Follett starts with those facts and then builds a story around the best of the women agents being assigned the job of blowing up the most important telephone exchange connecting the German military between France and Germany and doing it during the week preceding the invasion at Normandy. Follett communicates the sense that destroying this exchange will make the German response to invasion much slower and thus save lives and increase the chance that the greatest risk of the Second World War, the Normandy invasion, would succeed. He then creates a German intelligence officer who is determined to roll up the resistance before the invasion can occur. The contest between allies and Nazis builds to a level of tension that is palpable. The risks people took to defeat Nazi Germany and secure safety were stunning. The notion of people dropping into France again and again on secret missions with their lives at risk every minute comes through in this book with a force that grips the reader. The sense of Nazi brutality and ruthlessness is captured in a very realistic sense of what Nazi occupied France was like. Anyone who doubts that evil can exist and that decent people have to risk everything to defeat evil will have their doubts erased by this novel. Follett has done it again.
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Summary: This Is The Follett I Remember
Review: One of the earliest books in this genre that I read was the, "Eye Of The Needle". The author has since ranged widely amongst a variety of subjects, however with, "Jackdaws", Mr. Follett returns to World War II just prior to the Invasion Of Normandy. And like his previous efforts with this historical setting it is very well done, and will bring fond memories to those readers who were waiting for him to turn his pen once again to this theme. The book is a substantial work offering readers well over 400 pages of taught writing that unfolds over a little more than a week prior to D-Day. Like all books of this event it contains heroes, however they play against the background here, as a heroine takes charge of the story as well as the events in the book. The book begins with a notation that states that 50 women worked as secret agents in France for The Special Executive during the war. The book never seems to reach the moniker of historical fiction, although comments at the end strongly insinuate there was a real woman who, at the very least provided the inspiration for the heroine, "Flick". The women who volunteered to serve behind enemy lines in occupied France, and repeatedly traveled back and forth across The Channel during the war were clearly remarkable women, and were as fearless as any of their male counterparts. This novel is a bit scattered in its tone. The changes in the mood of the book work well as a whole, however they can seem a bit jarring and out of place as the book is read. If very graphic descriptions of the most brutal interrogation of both men and women are an issue, several areas of this book will be troublesome to read. I don't feel the length to which Mr. Follett took the level of detail was necessary, he is a wonderful writer, and many of these dungeon settings with their attendant horrors struck me as gratuitous. The main event of the book will either work well for a reader, or will be dismissed as being far too improbable. Mr. Follett increases the likelihood of the latter response as the team that is selected is from a practical standpoint untrained but for Flick, and their conduct is so outrageous it tests the reader's ability to suspend disbelief. There are always amazing true stories conducted by a group that should have a near zero chance of prevailing, however Mr. Follett takes the group a step further by making them all fairly dysfunctional as individuals. This is a bit like the stories of a group of jailed soldiers being granted a chance at redemption. The difference is they are at least soldiers, again with the exception of Flick, the group ranges as far as a member who can be likened to Julie Andrews in Victor Victoria, albeit reversed. As odd as it may sound in conclusion I did very much enjoy the book. The only rationale I can offer is that the Heroine Flick was a wonderful character, beautifully written, and as competent as any Special Forces Operative. So while there may be bits that will make a reader wince with incredulity, read on. This is very much a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
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