Risk

by James R. Vance

Following the Dunkerque evacuation of WWII, a young British soldier finds himself stranded behind enemy lines in France. He evades capture with the help of a French family intent on resisting the German occupation. On his return to England, the Special Operations Executive recruits the young man as an agent to organise secret escape lines in France. Returning to work with the resistance movement and the family who sheltered him, he matures from an innocent victim of war into an indomitable crusader for the liberation of France, endangering his own life whilst plunging his principles and his romantic liaisons into chaos. Almost seventy years later, his descendants literally discover the 'skeleton in the cupboard' when they learn the truth about a grandfather whose perceived war record had hidden his courage and risk-taking in the service of his country. The revelations about Geoffrey Miller's double life astound two families previously connected only by the English Channel.

316 pages, Paperback

First published April 11, 2013

About the author

James R. Vance, author of the historical fiction novel, Les Ruines, involving
the French resistance, lives in southwest
France. His second novel in this genre, Risk focusses on the escape lines from occupied countries across the Pyrenees during WWII. His latest novel, Something Old, Something New explores the effects and traumatic legacy of the Nazi occupation of France during WWII on three generations of a French family in the southwest area of the country.

His previously published books include the mystery thriller novels :
Animal Instinct, Killer Butterfly, The Courier and Eight.

http://writerscrampfr.blogspot.fr/

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

RISK is a novel by a British writer whom I met last year at a book fair in France. He never intended, he said, to be a writer, but after living in the Vienne, an area of France several hundred miles southwest of Paris, he began to notice markers that commemorated World War II encounters, and he began to talk to long time residents who had war experiences, and he felt he had to make something of this, and what emerged was historical fiction.

The German occupation of France extended along the coast line and a few miles inland. Beyond that was the "free zone", unoccupied by the Germans. The Vienne had not really known war since the 15th century, but the final days of World War II brought fighting here for the first time in centuries. Americans and British paratroopers made drops in the area to coordinate efforts with the maquis, the French guerrilla resistance movement whose aim was to harass the Germans and impede their war effort, particularly successful after the Normandy invasion of June, l944. Heavy guerilla fighting went on Limousin area near Limoges, just south of the Vienne.

What Vance has done is write a fictionalized story about a young Brit who is caught up in battle early in the war, and flees south to escape capture. After he makes his way across the Pyrenees and back to England, he is recruited to work as a spy. His mother was French and he is fluent in both English and French, an invaluable asset. He is to work with the maquis in smuggling spies and grounded Allied paratroopers through an underground system of safe houses and escape routes that ultimately let people flee the war zone by way of little traveled routes through the Pyrenees.

Vance draw both on his knowledge of England where he has lived, as well as in France, he and has obviously done a lot of historical research. He creates added tension with a love story that involves the Brit who is engaged to be married in England, but simultaneously torn by his attraction to a young French woman who works with him in the resistance movement. It's a tragic situation, a little contrived, I thought, but Vance has a surprise ending which works very well - he jumps forward 70 years to 2011 to tie up some puzzling aspects of his story.

I don't read a lot of historical fiction, but to repeat, his story is well-researched and a reader learns a lot about how the French resistance movement operated during the war. Some of the dialogue struck me as a bit clunky, too much expository information being worked in, and occasionally the story slides into patriotic stereotypes, but these are minor quibbles.

[Beryl Billenness · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another book about World War 2 that I loved.

Following the evacuation of Dunkirk this soldier was stranded behind enemy lines; and with the help of French families was able to make his way back to England.

What happened after, when he volunteered to go back to France to help organise escape routes you would have to read, but it kept me enthralled till the end.

The reason why I liked this book is because my eldest brother lost his unit at Dunkirk but got back safe.

Beryl

Author of: Observations of "Just a Housewife" available through Amazon.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

My best novel so far, after spending two years researching escape lines, SOE and the role of the French resistance during WWII.

Linked slightly to Les Ruines.