Princess Fuzzypants here: if you are looking for a riveting historical novel that is planted solidly in fact, you would be hard pressed to find a better one. The Nazis were losing the war but in a last ditch attempt to bring London to its knees, it launched the V2 rocket. Unlike the V1 whose motor cut out just before it plummeted to earth, this one provided no warning and inflicted great damage wherever it landed. As the Allies advanced, they discover launch sites but the one near Hague is still operational and it can hit both London and Antwerp.

We get to see the story from two sides. We follow the adventures of the English officers who are trying to figure out where the launch sites are and take them out. Since they moved after each firing, they must do the math and within minutes decipher its location and call in the RAF to destroy it. Our heroine Kay is one of the plucky ladies assigned to do the math.

Then we journey with Graf, a man who joined Werner Von Braun in the early 1930’s, in his quest to send a rocket to the moon. The science is quickly highjacked by the Nazi regime for far more nefarious purposes. He goes along from Norway to Belgium and back again. Disenchanted with what he is doing, he wants to get out but does not know how.

We rotate back and forth between the stories until at the end of the book our two protagonists meet after the war. I suspect there may be an interesting story that could develop from there. In the meantime, we are left with a page turner. If the pandemic sped up the writing process, we can be thankful for a least one thing. This is a good one.

Five purrs and two paws up.

Based on historical facts about the V2 rockets developed by the Nazis as a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of WWII, the author has created a wonderfully crafted story with well developed and compelling characters, it has twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat right to the last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada who provided me with a copy of this book. I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

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...

Set just prior to the end of the Second World War, Robert Harris' V2 depicts Germany's last-ditch effort to turn the tide in its favor with the development and deployment of their V2 ballistic missile.  The story follows two main characters – Kay Connolly, an ambitious British solider, and Willi Graf, a fictional colleague of the very real Wernher von Braun, the man who invented the V2 rocket that had been used to attack London.

I received an advanced copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

To be honest, this one was disappointing.  I just could not get into the story to the level I expected.  I often found myself reading ahead at times before forcing myself to go back and take it in properly.  I guess I just found it hopelessly dull at points, which is a shame because the only other Harris book I'd read - Fatherland - I very much enjoyed.  You would think the story of Hitler’s final idea to swing things in his favor would be a bit more compelling.

That said, I did find the real history surrounding the WAAF (Women's Auxiliary Air Force)'s role interesting.  Their job in collecting the data from the V2 rockets as they took off in hopes of finding and destroying the launch sites was very inspiring and the methods and calculations used to determine the German’s locations captured my attention.  I’d almost rather read a non-fiction book about their story rather than one with a somewhat cumbersome fictional backdrop that failed to grab me.

Willi Graf and his reluctant association with the German forces was engaging at times as it isn’t often I get the chance to read about wary members of the Nazi regime.  But like Kay, his story felt very paint-by-numbers and probably one I won’t be able to recall in a few weeks.

This one feels like one of those popcorn thrillers that you’d expect to fly under the radar but exceed expectations.  Unfortunately, it comes across as a DVD you’d find in a bargain bin at your discount department store.  There’s nothing offensive here.  It’s short, so it has that going for it.  It was OK.