Years ago, I used to read Cara Black’s Aimée Leduc novels every year as they were published. Then I quit, because they felt formulaic and half-hearted. But I was intrigued by the premise of this novel, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

While some of the cat-and-mouse story is exciting, on the hole it felt over the top and unbelievable. It’s a 36-hour story and Kate escapes for an impossible situation on a near-hourly basis.

It also bothers me that Kate outperforms every agent in the field, even though she was a raw recruit with little time for training. Then, when I read about her handler’s intentions, that just annoyed me no end.

I’ve read a lot of World War II espionage books, fiction and non-fiction. This one is disappointing.

Kate Rees had everything she loved taken away in a fireball caused by a fuel tanker running into the back of the car where her husband and sick baby were waiting for her. It was June 1940 and the mandatory black out prevented the tanker driver from seeing the sedan. Kate, born and raised in Oregon and an exceptional markswoman, was recruited by British intelligence to use her skills with a rifle to assassinate Hitler during his visit to Nazi-occupied Paris. Things go wrong, Hitler lives, and Kate is on the run with nowhere to go.

Black has written a page-turner of a novel with tension ratcheting up on nearly every page. Kate is a well-drawn character with nothing left to lose and an abiding hatred of Hitler. Paris in 1940 is described vividly as is the terror of everyday Parisians and Kate herself when she is on the run.

If you love historical novels, you need to put this title at the top of your to-be-read list.

My thanks to Soho Crime and NetGalley for an eARC.

Courtesy of NetGalley, I received the ARC of Three Hours in Paris by Cara Black. Unlike most WWII historical fiction I have read, this was a fast paced spy thriller set in Nazi occupied Paris. Well written and well researched, I enjoyed the strong woman character who outsmarted everyone! I couldn't put this down and hope there will be more escapades featuring Kate Rees!

This book was just not for me. While I tried to become invested between the writing and the story it wasn’t happening. Obviously it would appear to be me, with so many glowing reviews, I might try again at a later date.

Three Hours in Paris is a fast-paced historical fiction mystery that will keep you wanting to read from start to finish.
Told in three different perspectives of Kate, spy trainer Stepney, and Nazi officer Gunter. Kate is the main perspective we follow.
Kate's background story was an interesting one and one that I haven't seen used before in Historical Fiction. She is an American who was living in Britain as she had married and had a kid with a British man. Before she moved to Britain though she was a farm girl and was a crack shot.
Back to the main point of the story, Kate needs to get out of Paris and only has a certain amount of time to do that because she is being hunted by Nazi officer Gunter after her mission gets compromised.
Overall I loved this book. The multiple perspectives helped see all sides of the story and how everything was unfolding. Kate is one of my new favorite characters ever. Her fast thinking and way of working through things was so fun to read while also being extremely nerve-wracking at times.
All of the side characters were fascinating to learn about, especially the ones connected to a network as it became a side mission for Kate to work on after a while.
Three Hours in Paris has so many working parts that just all work together easily without any confusion happening.

I think this is going to be one of the top Historical Fiction books of the year, and it will definitely be going on my favorites for the year.

(ARC) Book Review: Three Hours in Paris by author, Cara Black
Expected release~ April 7, 2020

"As apricot dawn blushed over the rooftop chimneys, she checked the bullets, calibrated and adjusted the telescopic mount, as she had every few hours."

A young mother, loving wife....and a WWII Sniper! Wait, what!?
Her name is Kate Rees, and she's an American markswoman on a mission you won't believe.

Ms. Black is a new author to me, so of course I was anxious to see just where she would be taking me within this story... and I can happily report, the journey was incredibly intriguing, knowledgeable and entertaining. A thriller on a whole different level!

This is a wonderfully intense, vivid, nail-bitter of a narrative, that's sure to capture your attention, and leave you breathless...

If you enjoy the fierce, the cat and mouse chase, and the descriptive energy that historical fiction brings~ then this book is for you!

5 Stars

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I was mentally exhausted by the time I finished this book; it starts out at a run and never lets up. It’s not many books that can keep up the pace this one does. So many things happen so quickly and the stress level is high all they way through.
The premise of the story is about a debauched hit on Hitler in 1939 by a woman rookie agent. If you can overlook the lack of credibility for Kate Rees, then you may certainly enjoy the cat and mouse games she plays with the German officers in her quest to get out of Paris and survive. The story has a lot of good points and quite a bit of it is believable, but unfortunately being raised on a farm with 5 brothers in Montana does not quite prepare or make a hit man out of you with only 8 months of training. That is where I had an issue with the book.
This one earned 4 stars, better than a mediocre book but the lack of experience for Kate really left something lacking in the story. She did seem to learn a lot from her physical disguise trainer though, I found it very interesting what she used or improvised in order to change her appearance. She didn’t learn that on the farm, little Ms. Cowgirl.
I was allowed an ARC from SoHo Press and NetGalley for my honest unbiased review. This one gets 4 stars.

This ticking clock thriller feels like the book Cara Black has long wanted to write, it’s so explosive, so taut, and so impossible to stop reading. The propulsive narrative follows Kate Rees, a young American sent to assassinate Hitler when he visits Paris for three hours in 1940. The set up shows Kate waiting with her sniper rifle for Hitler’s appearance; then it goes back in time, very briefly, to establish Kate as a person. She’d been living in Scotland with her Welsh husband and their baby daughter when she loses them both to a German bomb, making her determined to fight the Germans with every bit of herself.

This look at Kate’s backstory is both narratively efficient and extremely effective as it causes the reader to care about Kate and be completely invested in her. Black then turns her sights to her real objective: telling an hour by hour story of the hunted and the hunter. As it’s 1940 it’s not a spoiler to say Kate misses her target though she does hit another one, and the Fuhrer wants the shooter found and dispatched.

This unhappy task falls to Gunter Hoffman, who is given 36 hours to find the shooter. He reluctantly shoves the Steiff bear he’s bought for his daughter’s birthday back into his bag and begins his hunt. The bear becomes almost a totem, and shows up in different ways through the very end of the novel. It’s the kind of specific detail that helps the reader reluctantly understand the mind of a Nazi officer – to a degree. When both sides of the equation are humanized, it makes the playing field far more interesting.

Some of Kate’s background detail establishes that she’s a crack shot (thus the sniper assignment), and it shows her being taught the subtle art of disguise. This comes in extremely handy, as things obviously go south pretty quickly. Kate is excellent at thinking on her feet and negotiates her way through a maze of drop sites and contact points, often using her anonymity as a woman to her advantage.

By turns she disguises herself as a mother pushing a baby buggy, a nurse, an old woman, and a cleaning lady – all types that tend to be overlooked. While I felt this was deliberate after finishing the book and thinking about it for a while, while I was reading, it didn’t cross my mind. It just seemed like another thing Kate has to do to stay alive and elude the Germans.

For a thriller to really work, the gears and inner workings of the plot shouldn’t be too apparent. They should just naturally fold into one another in a progression that seems absolutely inevitable. This was definitely the case with this novel. I also approached it, I have to say, somewhat reluctantly, as I was wondering what possible new way could be found to tell the story of occupied (or about to be occupied) Paris.

But this book, as it turns out, was completely original. Kate is a different type of character and she’s completely mission driven. She thinks practically, fights like a man, and has the skillset of a hunter. The plot never lets up. The characters are made human to the reader, but the main thing is the hunt and the ability of the hunter to locate his prey.

Read it. There were so many unexpected twists and clever acts of thought and action on Kate’s part I think I will be mulling it over for quite a while. It’s a fabulous change of pace for the talented Cara Black.

Ms Black has written a book with a new protagonist. I"m so glad. Her books with Aimee Leduc were starting to seem like the same book over and over. This book has a female lead and the same over-the-top writing when describing her feelings and actions. However, Ms Black has clearly done her homework and includes some interesting history. A real fact: Hitler spent three hours in Paris in 1940 then abruptly leaves. No one knows why.
Ms Black and her heroine, Kate, reimagine what happened during those three hours. Her imagined history is quite believable and fun to read.

I want to thank Netgalley and Soho Press for my advance copy. First, as I was reading this book, I thought - Man this would make a great movie, a la Jason Bourne or Jack Ryan - simply because there was just so much I can't believe she does and survives nor buy all the luck and creativity our heroine is having - who by the way has a code name of cowgirl.. Seriously, the book as all the makings for a great spy flick.

So about the book. I did like it. Did I love it, compared to works by Quinn - no, it's not at that level but it's still enjoyable. My review:

1. Kate Reeves is an American, from Oregon who married a Scottish soldier who she met in France, and moved to Scotland with. They have a daughter named Lisbeth and she works at an ammunition factory on a Scottish Isle.
2) Kate learned to shoot in Oregon and is one of the best sharpshooters around - she has won awards in the US and she is the one that does the shooting tests at the factory. Very impressive and mad skills - enough to garner the attention of British intelligence.
3). German Blitz. - Her husband and daughter are killed in a fiery crash caused by german bombers attacking the isle. - So of course she wants revenge.
4) She is recruited by British intelligence and takes on a suicide mission. KEY NOTE...SHE DOES NOT KNOW IT'S A SUICIDE MISSION AND SHE MANAGES TO ALMOST SUCCEED AT HER MISSION..
5) Here is/are the parts that I had trouble getting my head around in the book, but that I feel would be great in a movie.... She parachutes into occupied France, her contact is captured and killed and yet with no contacts, and little information she gets herself to the location in Paris and manages to almost succeed in her mission. She then flees to her checkpoints - as was the plan avoiding getting caught my Germans..
6). The woman is a natural. With no sleep - she gets to the cafe, and quickly reads the situation and realizes that she should wait before giving the signal. Good Call. This is also part of the cover up.
7) The Fuhrer is Pissed and sends a german police officer to apprehend the shooter. As he goes through his mission, he uncovers a secret British plot to assassinate high ranking officers (the real mission) and a SS officer called the VET - apparently Gunter, the cop is also set up to fail. - or you would think.
8) Our heroine still running around getting to safe houses passed on from one contact to the next that she somehow finds, quickly realizes they are traps and yet survives - with no spy training.
9) German cop still hot on her trail.... I liked this part... he was good
10) She meets a French resistance soldier who at the end helps her and through him meets a dying engineer who is essential to stopping the invasion of England. She also discovers the 4 parachuters sent in for the real mission and learns they took cyanide tablets when caught and that she wasn't given a cyanide table. She realizes she is the sacrificial lamb used to throw detection away from the real mission and British intelligence wanted her caught and interrogated to make the Germans waste time - Which failed - again the British soldiers were captured and bit their cyanide pill and Kate/Cowgirl is still alive and kicking. Don't underestimate us Americans..
11) She takes on the Super important mission as a way of finding an exit out of France and back to England.... What???? She also finds and kills the traitor in the network. Super Female American Spy!!!
12) German Cop catches up to her and arrests her, but this woman has more lives than a cat and more luck than a gambler at a poker table..... she is able to escape (not going to say how cause that would be a spoiler) and makes it back to England.
13) She's home and meets her handler who basically sent her on a death mission and they have a chat. She goes back to Scotland and becomes a trainer.

Is it like the Alice Network.... no, but like I said it's a good action book and I would really love to see her as a feminine Jason Bourne or Jack Reynolds.

Would love to hear what you think of it.

This story takes place in 1940, mostly in Paris. A strong female character with the right skills and circumstances has accepted a mission in Paris. Her race to survive and complete the mission has us on the edge of our seats. Highly recommended.

Kate Rees, an American who lost her Welsh Naval officer husband and young daughter in a Luftwaffe raid at the start of World War Two is recruited by British special operations for a special mission to assassinate Hitler during his only visit to Paris in 1940. Kate is a sharpshooter and confident in her ability to do the job, but a young child gets in the way at the last second and Kate kills another Nazi official instead. What follows is a cat and mouse chase through Paris at Kate attempts to evade the Gestapo and a Munich police officer assigned to protect Hitler.

The book is an exciting and fast paced read but I would have enjoyed it more if I could have believed the British would have sent such a poorly trained agent into occupied Paris.

Over 70 years have passed since the second World War and people cannot stop writing about this impacting time in history. In the spy thriller Three Hours in Paris, Cara Black puts a woman into the spotlight who has the tools to get rid of Hitler once and for all.

Kate Rees is young, married, and a mother to an 18 month old baby. She met her husband in Paris, who took this young American female with him to England. Life is perfect. Until one day, a Nazi bomb kills her husband and child in front of her. In the middle of her overwhelming grief, the British intelligence makes her an offer she cannot refuse. Growing up on a ranch, she knows how to use a rifle and as a woman, she can easily blend in because no one would suspect a woman to assassinate Hitler.

After some training, she is sent to Paris to eliminate her target. Unfortunately, she does not succeed. Thinking that everything has been a set up and she only was the distraction for another plan, she has to run for her life and find her way back to England before the Nazis catch her.

I like the idea that a woman has the fate of the world in her hands as we all know this wasn't the case for the majority of women who instead had to keep things running instead. I can only imagine how many people would have wished for the chance that Black has given her protagonist.

Unlike European women at that time, Kate knows how to defend herself and knows what independence is, thanks to where she comes from. Of course, she took her chance to get revenge when she got the offer, but went in blind despite the little training she got.

For most of the book, it seems that her superior does not trust her and that she is expendable. Being stranded in another country with no help while the villain is all around her, Kate tries her best to navigate her way out using old and new contacts. For this short amount of time, an awful lot has happened and it was a bit intense to follow.

While the story starts with Kate’s point of view, it moves back and forth to the POV of Gunter, the man who received the mission from Hitler to find the assassin who tried to kill him. It gave me the impression that he is not fully convinced of Hitler’s plan for the future of Europe, but yet he still tries to fulfil his wishes.

After everything that happens over the course of the book, the ending gives you the conclusion which you slowly start to see while you read.

Despite the other fiction books I have read that also take place within this time period, this is one of the most well-written ones. It moves fast and confronts you with many new characters and situations, causing you to concentrate quite a bit, but this only makes you more invested in the story.

Living in the middle of Europe with ancestors who had to face Nazis, this historical event is very important to me. I recently heard that according to a study pool, not many people know what the Second World War was about and its aftermath. I refuse to believe that this is actually true, but if so, then books like this, fiction or not, are important to be written and read.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the strong chapters and compelling story line. The dueling POV kept me on my toes.

Three Hours in Paris is an interesting book, it's not like any other I have read before. I loved the unique plot, an American woman turned spy and assassin as she battles back from the tragic loss of her family. Historically accurate detail, bold and clear characters made this book thrilling and believable. It was easy to get drawn into this world set in WWII Paris fighting against the German occupation. This book captured my imagination and emotions as I navigated the dark world of the undercover resistance. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves historical fiction, espionage thrillers.

As a French person who is liking historical fiction more and more lately, I got really attracted by "Three hours in Paris".

We follow one of the only female British operatives who is given a crucial mission in Paris during WWII. Kate was never military and never thought she would get involved personnaly in the war, but after her husband and daughter are killed in an air strike, she wants nothing more than to get revenge on the Germans.

I loved the whole undercover aspect of the story. We get into the action pretty quickly without it being rushed and I loved it. I mean, the girl is given the task to shoot Hitler ! Wow ! The whole drama and tension that comes after it is absolutely gripping, and I wanted to know what happened next, and if Kate would make it out alive, along with the characters she meets throughout the book.

The fact that Kate has to go from place to place one at a time because no one in the network has full information about everything was realistic, and I'm glad it made it in the book. I usually don't always notice whether things are realistic or not in historical fictions, but this time, I was truly able to enjoy it, and picture WWII Paris in my mind.

Truthfully, I only had one issue with the book, and it's entirely subjective. I have always struggled with multiple POVs and here, we have a POV constantly changing between Kate and the German officer tracking her. It gives more depth to the story, but the author kept jumping from one to the other with less than 15 pages between them, and it bugged me.

I really recommend reading this if you enjoy historical fiction set in WWII and if you like spies stories ! It was very entertaining !

The world of cloak and daggers..spies and subterfuge...the drama of espionage..This is what you get and more when you immerse yourself in this standalone historical fiction from Cara Black. I couldn't help feeling like I was tossed in the middle of a frightening tense movie, wondering what was going to happen around the next corner.Black reimagines a scene in 1940 when Hitler was in Paris for 3 hours. During that time, Kate ,an American sharpshooter, was hired by the British government to assassinate him.The assignment became personal as the Germans had killed her husband and little girl recently.
Instead of peeling back layers of an onion, exposing different elements of the story, I felt like layers and layers were added to the mixture in the propulsive overlay of predicaments. For those that like undercover operations and historical reads, you have found your match!

I am a huge fan of Black’s Aimee Leduc mysteries, and this stand alone book did not disappoint. It was a page turner, hard to put down as you followed Kate Rees, a mother and wife turned spy for the British during WWII. As an American who learned shooting skills on her family farm, Kate was prepared for the mission after a great loss. Following her through Paris, a city Cara Black knows well, was exciting and heart stopping. Highly recommended, and thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This is a well-written suspense story of a woman finding her way to fight back against injustice during WW2 - intrigue, grit, and lots of blind corners.

This is a stand alone from Cara Black. She has taken an intriguing historical event and flashed it into a really good story. American Kate Rees, a strong independent woman touched by tragedy, is given an impossible mission in Nazi occupied Paris. The real story begins post-mission with her attempt to escape Paris. Who can she trust as she is pursued thought the City of Light.
Here is where the author shown at creating tension. I found myself wanting a positive resolution for both the pursued and the pursuer. It was an excellent depiction of a wartime city where people outside forces push people into revealing their true selves.