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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Thursday, May 17, 2012



Just Finished Reading: The Occupation by Guy Walters

Berlin 1945 – In an act of desperation Hitler orders the deployment of his final terror weapon, the V3. Designed to rain down hundreds of rockets on its target the effect of the devastation is heightened by the deadly warheads each missile contains. The only limitation is its comparatively short range. The solution is to base it on the almost abandoned island of Alderney – one of the occupied Channel Islands, the only British soil to be occupied by the Germans in WW2.

Alderney 1990 – During the construction of a new flagship hotel on the island workmen start to complain of mysterious symptoms and begin falling ill. The company, eager to avoid an investigation contrive a series of accidents to cover up the suspicious deaths. Recently sacked journalist Robert Lebonneur smells a story and tries to investigate only to be warned off by his editor. Incensed by this obstruction he decides to fly to Alderney himself to see what is happening. On route the pilot suffers from a heart attack and Robert must save himself and the rest of the passengers. But can he find out what is happening and what did happen on that island so long ago and who is trying to kill him to protect a wartime secret long since forgotten?

I think I bought this book in a pile of cheap novels in a book sale somewhere. I really didn’t expect very much from it and had decided to treat it pretty much as a throw-away book – something you normally pick up in an airport to take on holiday, read and instantly forget. It actually surprised me by being reasonably well written. OK, the storyline – especially the modern part – wasn’t handled very well, but the ‘flash-back’ to 1945 was, I thought, rather well written. In fact I sometimes struggled to reconcile the two halves of the book. Half was so-so whilst the other half was quite gripping. If the author had placed his story exclusively in the dying months of the war and told the tale of the building of the V3 and the attempts to destroy it I probably would have liked this book a great deal more. Overall it was a reasonable read as well as a pretty fast one. Definitely one for light holiday reading.   


[Oh, and that was my 3000th post.......]

2 comments:

Stephen said...

3k! Wow, congratulations!

This one sounds.. bizarre, but interesting.

CyberKitten said...

I'd really have to say half interesting.... [grin]

The V-3 was a real weapon which was being installed in France just before the Allies overran it in 1944. As to whether it would've actually worked in practice.....

I was actually surprised to read that the Channel Islands were only brought back into British ownership after the Fall of Germany rather than, more logically in my mind, not long after the Normandy landings. It intrigued me enough to add a book on the subject to my Amazon Wish List as another gap in my historical knowledge to fill in.