Three Hours In Paris

Years ago I had a real thing for Paris and visited 13 times in just a few years. I knew the city like the back of my hand and during that period I read Cara Black's Amée Leduc series about a Parisian private investigator. Each book is set in a different Paris arrondissement and I enjoyed reading about the neighbourhoods I knew so well. It's been a long time since I've picked up one of her books and I was curious about her new novel Three Hours In Paris which is a World War 2 thriller about Kate Rees, a young American who has just lost her husband and baby daughter to a German bombing of a munitions factory in Scotland in 1940. She also happens to be a sharpshooter and shortly after the bombing is recruited by British intelligence to train for an assignment in Paris. Eager to seek revenge for the deaths of her family, she is itching to shoot some Nazis. (I know it sounds ridiculous.) She botches an assassination attempt in Paris and has to go on the run with a German cop in hot pursuit. She dodges through the streets of nazi-occupied Paris trying to find a way back to England, using all the techniques she learned in her whirlwind spy training. It becomes clear that the British have betrayed her and she doesn't know who she can trust. The plot is far fetched but the pace is frenetic - the escape takes place over 36 hours and a lot happens - and I got caught up in the caper. It's a fun read. Just don't expect a serious WW2 spy novel.