Popular suspense writer Follett understandably gravitates to the inherently exciting world of international intrigue that all of Europe devolved into as a result of Germany's over-land-and-sea aggression, which began in 1939. In all German-occupied countries, collaboration versus resistance was on the mind of everyone, from government official to provincial farmer. That life-or-death predicament is at the core of Follett's new novel, in which a vastly crucial military question is plaguing British strategists, including none other than Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The question is, Why are so many British airplanes being shot from the skies as they approach Continental targets? Digby Hoare, Churchill's assistant, has been assigned the task of finding out the answer. As Hoare states the difficult problem before him, "When we get to Germany, they're ready for us. They know we're coming." Hoare turns to Hermia, a young woman working as an analyst in charge of British intelligence's "Denmark desk." She was the founder of a small spy network in Denmark which passed military information to British intelligence. Hermia is engaged to a Danish fighter pilot grounded by the German occupation, and he has a younger brother still in school, preparing for college but seething with indignation over Denmark's quick surrender after the German invasion. The individual and collective roles these individuals play in supplying an answer to why Germany is aware in advance of British air raids are woven into the tense fabric of this consistently compelling novel. --Brad Hooper

Spunky Danes spy and fly beneath the radar of their Nazi occupiers. Follett returns to WWII (Jackdaws, 2001, etc.), where his patriotic newsreel style may be an asset, setting the proper black-and-white tone for a tale about a schoolboy who sticks a spanner in the Germans' early warning system. Harald Olufson is the mechanically gifted pastor's son whose dream of studying under countryman Niels Bohr looks impossible after he's booted from school for an anti-fascist prank. Harald's hardshell father pulls the plug on university plans and apprentices the boy to a creepy haberdashery, where he is to ponder the error of his ways. But Harald ditches the handkerchiefs and speeds off on his peat-powered motorcycle to find work on a farm near the little castle where beautiful Jewish Karen Duchwitz, promising ballerina and twin sister of a schoolmate, lives with her very rich mum and dad. Karen has had a few flying sessions with Poul, a chum of Harald's pilot brother Arne, but neither Karen nor Harald is aware that Poul is a member of the Danish resistance, organized from England by Arne's fiancee Hermia. Hermia has been charged with finding out how the Germans have been able to render nearly useless the waves of bombers the English have been throwing against them. As it happens, Harald has the answer. He just doesn't know how important it is. Taking a shortcut through a secret German installation on the way home one dark and stormy night, he noted the interesting combination of three radar antennas and deduced correctly that the krauts had invented an efficient warning system. Getting the secret out of Denmark will cost several lives and involve the evil Peter Flemming, a man with a deep-seated grudge against the Olufsons and a deeper-seated admiration for the Germans. It will also require Harald's handyman skills to get the Duchwitz family's plane out of storage and into the air. Old fashioned derring-do done right.

Have the Nazis perfected radar? Intelligence analyst Hermia Mount thinks so, but a Danish teenager named Harald Olufsen has proof. If only he could figure out how to fly the creaky old Hornet Moth biplane to England. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Bestselling Welsh author Follett has made a career out of the WWII suspense thriller (Eye of the Needle; Jackdaws), and he hits the mark again with this dramatic and tragic tale of amateur spies pursued by Nazi collaborators in occupied Denmark in 1941. Harald Olufsen is an 18-year-old physics student who stumbles into espionage when he accidentally discovers a secret German radar installation on the island where he lives. The British do not know the Germans have radar and cannot understand why British nighttime bomber losses are so high. When Harald learns there is a fledgling Danish resistance group called the Nightwatchmen, he becomes involved through his older brother, Arne, a happy-go-lucky Danish army pilot. Harald photographs the secret radar site, but the spy group quickly unravels under the pressure of Danish police detective Peter Flemming, an officious, ruthless, and arrogant cop who hates the Olufsen family for a public humiliation his father suffered years before. The amateur spy network underestimates the police with tragic and deadly results, and soon Harald and his Jewish girlfriend, Karen, must plan a desperate aerial escape to get the photographs to England. Follett starts out fast and keeps up the pace, revealing how ordinary people who want to do the right thing are undone by their own enthusiasm and inexperience. He also paints a vivid and convincing picture of life in occupied Denmark, of easy collaboration with the Nazis and of the insidious, creeping persecution of the Jews. (Dec. 2) Forecast: Big sales are business as usual for Follett, and his latest offering (supported by television and print advertising) should be a strong performer. Audio rights have been sold to Audio Book Club and Books on Tape. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved