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The Girl in the Baker's Van
The region of Alsace, France, 1942.Some things are to die Evangeline Pfeiffer has a stolen secret. There are those who would kill her to get it back. Ever since the German invasion, Evangeline Pfeiffer has worked at the bakery in the small French town of Turckheim. Each morning, together with Alain her brother, she helps make the bread and pastries for Joseph, the baker. It is a life of routine and order.But there is disaster waiting just round the corner and when Alain is arrested by the Gestapo for aiding the resistance, her quiet existence is shattered. Unwittingly, she becomes an accomplice in the murder of Nazi agent Ludwig Kraus and finds herself thrown together with the killer, a Polish spy code named Kasha. She's on the wanted list, her only hope is an escape to Spain. Taking the baker’s van she and Kasha drive south. She has burnt her bridges – there is no going back. She is on the run – but the spy running with her might not be all he seems; Evangeline is suspicious; maybe he has another agenda - one that will not include her.Behind them as they twist and turn across Occupied France, their pursuers are closing the Gestapo, the German spy catchers (Sicherheitsdienst) and, most terrifying of all, the ruthless French secret police, La Carlingue. If they catch her she knows she will have little chance of she will be raped, tortured and executed.In the city of Dijon Kasha is captured. On her own with her chances of escape fading she continues her flight south; all the while the net tightening around her. Arriving in the southern city of Lyon she makes contact with a resistance cell but she is unsure if she can trust them - everywhere there are informers. Then something happens - she meets Grainger, a British SOE agent – he could be the game changer. If she can persuade him to help her, this could be her ticket out. But Grainger is reluctant, he has his own mission, he can’t afford passengers – nevertheless she’s sticking to him. She’s not about to let go…
435 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 7, 2021
This book is the prequel to The Boy from the Tangier Souk, which I read first. This didn't affect the follow of the story and it was lovely to meet all the characters again. This is a well researched WW2 novel, when the gestapo where in occupied France. I'm not s history buff so found this very easy to follow. You have Richard, the British spy, Evangeline, the French girl on the run with the secret parcel. The story is a cat and mouse chase through France and over to Spain. Bad guys chasing each other, looking for clues and trying to piece the whole mystery together.
Highly recommend. Terrific read and not too long. Fabulous 5 Stars.
Highly recommend. Terrific read and not too long. Fabulous 5 Stars.
January 16, 2019
I was quite confused by this book it. From the very start I was misled: the title and cover immediately suggested to me Women’s Fiction, nothing to do with the war at all, more in the line of all those books about girls with tea shops etc. Only when I looked more closely at the cover did I see the war images. The title is so misleading! Actually the “girl” only starts the story in a baker’s van and it is never mentioned again – though twice she is referred to by other characters as “the girl in…etc”. However, this is not the author's fault so I will let it pass. But definitely thriller rather than Women's Fiction.
This book goes on to confuse and seems to break all the rules. It starts with a character who is not only not the main character but -- SPOILER – dies at the end of the first chapter. A rather boring man, actually. Usually we are supposed to meet the main character from the very start, so again I was misled into thinking this man would play a major role. And throughout the book there are at least five main characters whose stories weave in and out and I found it hard to keep them apart; the “girl” being only one of many. It was slightly slapstick even: who knocked who on the head, is he a goody or a baddy, will he/she survive etc etc. Mostly male characters, and lots of people being killed or sent to camps and then miraculously surviving/escaping/being rescued. It’s really an action book with little or no character development.
There is even a James Bond-style super-villain with superhuman powers a la Goldfinger-villain, but female, who survives just such an attack… By the middle of the book I had a strong suspicion that the author was male; the book just had a male vibe and I hadn’t taken note of the author’s name. Indeed: male author! Towards the end there is so much going on, hunted and hunters, who gave the package to whom and why, etc and so many fighting scenes and incredible coincidences my head was spinning and I thought, I am too old for this book!
Lots of German errors – in future this author should check with a native speaker. For instance, the word Mädchen, meaning girl, is neutral, but he made it feminine: schöne Mädchen is not correct German grammar. This is not sexism; the suffix -chen is always neutral. Also, Alsace during the annexation was not in Rhineland but in Baden.
One serious plot hole: Grainger’s bad French accent was a major problem in the story; but how come his total lack of any German, much less the native language German he’d need in his disguise as an SD officer, is never mentioned? Was he seriously supposed to converse with the German occupiers in French?
Why was Schreiber always addressed as Kriiminalinspektor (which should have been Herr Kriminalinspektor) when he was actually Gestapo and not Kriminalpolizei (Kripo)?
Another irritating point is that both the young female characters are the instigators of sex with their lovers, especially Evangeline. This was NOT common back in the day! Very few women would be forward enough to request sex from a potential partner, be the first to suggest it, walk around naked in front of a man of interest – it just wasn’t the etiquette, not even for French women, and certainly not a small-town girl, a woman of religious faith, as Evangeline was. They would almost always need commitment, a promise of marriage first; and in this case, both Evangeline and Richard being so rootless, with uncertain wartime futures, a young woman would hardly take such a risk, no matter how much she was falling in love, and would not invite him to her bed. Remember there was no reliable birth control in those days and unmarried pregnancy was a huge scandal and a tremendous risk for the woman. All these WW2 books with sexually assertive women are quite unrealistic. If the woman is an exception to the rule, then, authors, please show WHY she is an exception, and don’t have her behave like a 21st century feminist, and make her worry about unwanted pregnancy; they are not on the Pill!
Why then four stars and not only two or one? Because in spite of all the above I really enjoyed the book. The background descriptions are fantastic: very detailed and meticulously drawn so that I felt I was right there in the scenes, and extremely well written; the buildings, house interiors, train services, barge service, etc. I was really impressed and absorbed. I love it when an author has done proper research and beings history to life by vivid writing. This novel far surpasses the very popular The Nightingale both as far as writing and accuracy of wartime France is concerned.
So in spite of my critique I found the book both entertaining and educational and couldn’t put it down, and in fact started to re-read it immediately as it annoys me that I was confused and I want to understand what happens. It just shows that even though you might have a lot of criticism about a book, you can still all in all enjoy it, and that’s what counts.
This book goes on to confuse and seems to break all the rules. It starts with a character who is not only not the main character but -- SPOILER – dies at the end of the first chapter. A rather boring man, actually. Usually we are supposed to meet the main character from the very start, so again I was misled into thinking this man would play a major role. And throughout the book there are at least five main characters whose stories weave in and out and I found it hard to keep them apart; the “girl” being only one of many. It was slightly slapstick even: who knocked who on the head, is he a goody or a baddy, will he/she survive etc etc. Mostly male characters, and lots of people being killed or sent to camps and then miraculously surviving/escaping/being rescued. It’s really an action book with little or no character development.
There is even a James Bond-style super-villain with superhuman powers a la Goldfinger-villain, but female, who survives just such an attack… By the middle of the book I had a strong suspicion that the author was male; the book just had a male vibe and I hadn’t taken note of the author’s name. Indeed: male author! Towards the end there is so much going on, hunted and hunters, who gave the package to whom and why, etc and so many fighting scenes and incredible coincidences my head was spinning and I thought, I am too old for this book!
Lots of German errors – in future this author should check with a native speaker. For instance, the word Mädchen, meaning girl, is neutral, but he made it feminine: schöne Mädchen is not correct German grammar. This is not sexism; the suffix -chen is always neutral. Also, Alsace during the annexation was not in Rhineland but in Baden.
One serious plot hole: Grainger’s bad French accent was a major problem in the story; but how come his total lack of any German, much less the native language German he’d need in his disguise as an SD officer, is never mentioned? Was he seriously supposed to converse with the German occupiers in French?
Why was Schreiber always addressed as Kriiminalinspektor (which should have been Herr Kriminalinspektor) when he was actually Gestapo and not Kriminalpolizei (Kripo)?
Another irritating point is that both the young female characters are the instigators of sex with their lovers, especially Evangeline. This was NOT common back in the day! Very few women would be forward enough to request sex from a potential partner, be the first to suggest it, walk around naked in front of a man of interest – it just wasn’t the etiquette, not even for French women, and certainly not a small-town girl, a woman of religious faith, as Evangeline was. They would almost always need commitment, a promise of marriage first; and in this case, both Evangeline and Richard being so rootless, with uncertain wartime futures, a young woman would hardly take such a risk, no matter how much she was falling in love, and would not invite him to her bed. Remember there was no reliable birth control in those days and unmarried pregnancy was a huge scandal and a tremendous risk for the woman. All these WW2 books with sexually assertive women are quite unrealistic. If the woman is an exception to the rule, then, authors, please show WHY she is an exception, and don’t have her behave like a 21st century feminist, and make her worry about unwanted pregnancy; they are not on the Pill!
Why then four stars and not only two or one? Because in spite of all the above I really enjoyed the book. The background descriptions are fantastic: very detailed and meticulously drawn so that I felt I was right there in the scenes, and extremely well written; the buildings, house interiors, train services, barge service, etc. I was really impressed and absorbed. I love it when an author has done proper research and beings history to life by vivid writing. This novel far surpasses the very popular The Nightingale both as far as writing and accuracy of wartime France is concerned.
So in spite of my critique I found the book both entertaining and educational and couldn’t put it down, and in fact started to re-read it immediately as it annoys me that I was confused and I want to understand what happens. It just shows that even though you might have a lot of criticism about a book, you can still all in all enjoy it, and that’s what counts.
February 23, 2022
A totally absorbing narrative
A historical romance set in France during the early days of the German occupation.
Evangeline gets tangled up in the fledgling resistance and on the wrong side of the powers that be. Her only chance of survival is to escape to Spain and disappear. To do this, she is going to need friends … and maybe a little more than friendship.
Richard Savin creates a great sense of time and place for the background to a story the exudes tension throughout the narrative … even in the periods of calm!
A historical romance set in France during the early days of the German occupation.
Evangeline gets tangled up in the fledgling resistance and on the wrong side of the powers that be. Her only chance of survival is to escape to Spain and disappear. To do this, she is going to need friends … and maybe a little more than friendship.
Richard Savin creates a great sense of time and place for the background to a story the exudes tension throughout the narrative … even in the periods of calm!
January 4, 2019
After ‘The Right to Bear Arms’, Richard Savin stays with the events of the Second World War for this fast-moving espionage novel. The work of the British secret service organisation SOE and SIS and their relationship with the French resistance has featured prominently in literature, and this is another fine example. The story weaves its way through occupied and Vichy France as the heroine flees for safety. The tension and intrigue mount as she struggles to avoid the clutches of the SS and to identify friend from foe in a dark world of lies and deceit.
Although the plucky French resistance girl and her suave British spy love interest are stock fare of such stories, the author draws them convincingly and he has a nice line in ‘baddies’ as well.
A well-written and engrossing page turner which recalls the best of the Alastair Maclean
thrillers.
A must for lovers of WW2 spy stories.
reviewed by James Gault
Although the plucky French resistance girl and her suave British spy love interest are stock fare of such stories, the author draws them convincingly and he has a nice line in ‘baddies’ as well.
A well-written and engrossing page turner which recalls the best of the Alastair Maclean
thrillers.
A must for lovers of WW2 spy stories.
reviewed by James Gault
February 25, 2021
loved this book.
Great storytelling
Great storytelling
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews