LITMIR.BIZ

Set in the desperate days at the outset of the Second World War, Our Only Shield brings back Rory Ferrall, the resourceful Canadian spy from Michael J. Goodspeed’s debut novel, Three to a Loaf . Hastily recalled from a successful career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Rory arrives in Britain only to find a war that is being prosecuted with political indecision and wishful thinking. The skills he displayed as a spy in the Great War are once again sorely needed by a small group of far-sighted but frustrated military planners. Our Only Shield is a fascinating journey that takes us from an early wartime Britain still reeling from a string of catastrophic defeats into the once-peaceful Netherlands. In 1940, Holland was a prosperous country where an industrious and innocent population simply yearned for peace and the chance to lead tranquil lives. Believing they could escape the havoc and violence of a world gone berserk, they awoke to find themselves governed by a new, terrifyingly brutal regime. Inserted into this shocked and traumatized community, Rory Ferrall soon finds himself caught up with two unforgettable characters: Annika Hammerstein, a gifted musician who refuses to watch passively as atrocities are inflicted on her family and her country, and Reinhold Neumann, a dangerously anxious but clever and ambitious Nazi policeman whose aspirations are unrestrained by conscience. Our Only Shield is a meticulously researched story of how ordinary people marshal their talents to fight against ruthlessly efficient evil. Rich in historical detail, peopled with enduring characters, this powerful narrative gains steadily in momentum and tension and moves to a gripping conclusion. It’s an enthralling and satisfying story as well as a meditation on the timeless nature of organized violence.

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Three to a Loaf is the First World War story of Rory Ferrall, a young Canadian officer of Anglo-German descent who, after being wounded and disfigured at Ypres, comes to the attention of British military intelligence. Ferrall’s German background is valuable to the war’s planners. Hundreds of German-Americans had returned to the Fatherland to fight for the Kaiser at the outbreak of war in August 1914 and the British captured one. Cleverly trained to impersonate the captured German-American officer, Ferrall is smuggled into wartime Germany to infiltrate the German General Staff and discover their top-secret plan to break the stalemate on the Western Front. A page-turning novel of war and espionage, Three to a Loaf is also a portrait of societies and individuals pushed to the breaking point, and in some cases, beyond. Michael Goodspeed artfully blends the tension of a thriller with period detail, the detached commentary of a nitty-gritty travelogue, and psychological understanding of a harried man facing soul-destroying ethical decisions.

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