Near the end of WW11, Germany channels all its energy into a rocket, the V2. Robert Harris in a propulsive narrative tells the story from the perspectives of Dr Rudi Graf, a collaborator of Wernher von Braun, head of the rocket program and from Kay Caton-Walsh from the Women’s Auxiliary Air force. The story is set over five days and the dueling narratives expose how the tit for tat battle played out on both sides.
Skillfully mixing the real and fictional characters into the plot Mr. Harris has drawn a series of events related the V2 rockets and their launch. The storyline alternates between Dr. Graf who find himself in Occupied Holland launching the volatile and deadly machine against London and Kay Caton-Walsh who was sent to Belgium in the hope to discovering the location of the launch sites.
The narrative is the key feature and the joy is the two conspiracies we have in this book. Behind all of this is Wernher von Braun, head of the Nazi rocket program, who may be the only one to stand out from the cliché Nazi type. For all its pace “V2” is more drama than thriller. Mr. Harris has perfectly created tension within a story in which we know the ending and masterfully presented a well-researched history embellished with colourful human behaviour.
Although a fiction V2 tells a story close to what really happened during the war. It is very technical in details... get out your slide rule we have lots of maths to follow. Interesting in many ways...
I received a copy of this book from Penguin Random House via Netgalley and Edelweiss for an unbiased review these are my thoughts.
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