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Alex Kovacs #4
The Limoges Dilemma
The war stops for nothing. If you are in the French Resistance, there is no time for grieving or second-guessing or regret — that is what they say. But how do you listen to what your head is telling you when you are living with such a damaged soul?
Alex Kovacs has been smuggled into Limoges after a botched attempt to rescue him and his wife from the Gestapo by flying them out of France. She is gone and he is bereft. In Limoges and the surrounding area, he finds himself confronted not only by the German occupiers of the country but by different Resistance groups with different loyalties and perspectives — some followers of de Gaulle, some Communists, all with an agenda. Struggling with his emotions, and with these competing Resistance groups — all of which have one eye on who will take charge once the war is over — Alex becomes involved in sabotage missions, assassinations and revenge, all of which test his own moral foundation.
The Limoges Dilemma is the fourth book in the Alex Kovacs historical espionage thriller series. If you like to explore the world inhabited by Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther or the characters created by Alan Furst, a place and time where looming terror and moral ambiguity live side-by-side, then you’ll love Richard Wake’s World War II thriller series.
Pick up The Limoges Dilemma to discover this exciting series today!
Alex Kovacs has been smuggled into Limoges after a botched attempt to rescue him and his wife from the Gestapo by flying them out of France. She is gone and he is bereft. In Limoges and the surrounding area, he finds himself confronted not only by the German occupiers of the country but by different Resistance groups with different loyalties and perspectives — some followers of de Gaulle, some Communists, all with an agenda. Struggling with his emotions, and with these competing Resistance groups — all of which have one eye on who will take charge once the war is over — Alex becomes involved in sabotage missions, assassinations and revenge, all of which test his own moral foundation.
The Limoges Dilemma is the fourth book in the Alex Kovacs historical espionage thriller series. If you like to explore the world inhabited by Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther or the characters created by Alan Furst, a place and time where looming terror and moral ambiguity live side-by-side, then you’ll love Richard Wake’s World War II thriller series.
Pick up The Limoges Dilemma to discover this exciting series today!
263 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 12, 2018
615 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Richard Wake
34 books102 followersRichard Wake's first career was as a newspaper reporter, columnist, and editor. Writing fiction was always an aspiration, especially historical fiction set in Europe during the inter-war period, and now it has become a reality.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
November 28, 2020
An excellent book in Richard Wake's series of resistance during WWII. A good series that tells of the dangers people who lived in German occupied countries faced everyday.
October 30, 2024
This one was okay. Alex is grieving the loss of Manon. I say, loss, but he actually doesn’t know whether she is alive or dead nor what happened. At any rate, even though the planned flight to England went south, he still had to leave Lyon, so he and Leon are now in Limoges.
It amazes me how different the world was less than 100 years ago. It’s a mere 250 or so miles from Lyon to Limoges, but there was no way then to track someone other than by personally following them.
Leon and Alex are with a Resistance group, but Alex gets fed up because he thinks they are too passive in avoiding killing any German soldiers. He hooks up with a different group who are aggressive. While he is with them, he meets a woman named Claire who is a school teacher. He has feelings for her, which makes him feel guilty like he is betraying Manon, even though he is resigned to the fact that she is most likely dead.
Then Claire gets arrested for breaking curfew and when it appears she will be executed in reprisals, Alex is determined to break her out of jail. Eventually he successfully gets her out. He and Leon have decided to go to Paris and Claire refuses to go with them.
And that’s basically how it ends. I anticipate more action once they are in Paris — we shall see.
It amazes me how different the world was less than 100 years ago. It’s a mere 250 or so miles from Lyon to Limoges, but there was no way then to track someone other than by personally following them.
Leon and Alex are with a Resistance group, but Alex gets fed up because he thinks they are too passive in avoiding killing any German soldiers. He hooks up with a different group who are aggressive. While he is with them, he meets a woman named Claire who is a school teacher. He has feelings for her, which makes him feel guilty like he is betraying Manon, even though he is resigned to the fact that she is most likely dead.
Then Claire gets arrested for breaking curfew and when it appears she will be executed in reprisals, Alex is determined to break her out of jail. Eventually he successfully gets her out. He and Leon have decided to go to Paris and Claire refuses to go with them.
And that’s basically how it ends. I anticipate more action once they are in Paris — we shall see.
February 3, 2021
I'm not a fan of long series. They seem to run out of steam. This book was not bad, but it felt as it were just marking time. However, I will probably give one more book in the series a try at some time.
August 19, 2021
Another in the saga of Alex Kovaks. Having escaped from Lyon, and arrived in Limoges. A bit of a slow start became a good read, but then moved on at a good pace. Does give an insight into life and perils of being in the Resistance, both fighting the Nazi's and the French who supported them.
September 20, 2024
Richard Wake tills the always compelling story soil of Europe leading up to and during the Nazi years and the Cold War beyond. This is the fourth of his Alex Kovacs thrillers which began in Vienna in the 1930s, when he joined an espionage group fighting the growing Nazi menace. In the second Alex is a banker in Zurich in 1939 trying to warn the West of the Nazi advance. In the third he is working as a spy with his wife in her hometown of Lyon among the many conflicting Resistance factions. In this latest edition he is in Limoges among Resistance groups but with his wife missing after a botched rescue attempt from the Gestapo. He is involved in carrying out sabotage and asassinations, often among rival Resistance factions as they jockey to take over after the Nazis are defeated. I plan to continue with Alex into occupied Paris and into the Cold War espionage in at least another nine adventures. He is a sympathetic central character, the settings are vivid, the action often spectacular. He is not far in the wake, forgive the pun, of others writing World War II espionage stories, among whom my favourites remain Philip Kerr's world-weary Berlin cop Bernie Gunther, the Berlin station series of David Downing's journalist and film starlet uncomfortably close to Goebbels, or the epic range of European spies in Alan Furst's superb novels. The Nazis remain the most popular villains in history as fact and fiction.
May 30, 2020
4 down 1 to go!
Alex, I’ve been hooked from day 1
I’ve followed you through Austria, Switzerland and now through a France. I’ve seen you grow from a youngster, a salesman, a spy, a banker , a resistance fighter.....and I have been beguiled, bewitched and persuaded by your credibility.
This has been a superb series , one that I am now close to completing. Read through UK lockdown, it brings a sense of perspective to the tribulations that we are currently experiencing.
This has been a real pleasure. At the end of a long day, a whisky and a chapter or two is good for me. Spent in this company, I couldn’t have asked for more. Thank you.
Alex, I’ve been hooked from day 1
I’ve followed you through Austria, Switzerland and now through a France. I’ve seen you grow from a youngster, a salesman, a spy, a banker , a resistance fighter.....and I have been beguiled, bewitched and persuaded by your credibility.
This has been a superb series , one that I am now close to completing. Read through UK lockdown, it brings a sense of perspective to the tribulations that we are currently experiencing.
This has been a real pleasure. At the end of a long day, a whisky and a chapter or two is good for me. Spent in this company, I couldn’t have asked for more. Thank you.
January 12, 2020
A Good Story
This is the 4th book in the Alex Kovacs series. Each deals with a different period of WW2 and this takes place in Limoges. These are never overly complicated plots but deal with a different aspect of Alex's journey. Here he, and Leon, have moved from Lyon to Limoges and are assisting the local resistance.
The story keeps you engaged and provides a basic understanding of life in Vichy France. This is done with broad brushstrokes, rather in depth analysis.
Well worth a read.
This is the 4th book in the Alex Kovacs series. Each deals with a different period of WW2 and this takes place in Limoges. These are never overly complicated plots but deal with a different aspect of Alex's journey. Here he, and Leon, have moved from Lyon to Limoges and are assisting the local resistance.
The story keeps you engaged and provides a basic understanding of life in Vichy France. This is done with broad brushstrokes, rather in depth analysis.
Well worth a read.
March 15, 2021
Raw. Brutally direct. Life for those who dare
This was an interesting read. I don’t think the characters moved more than twenty miles in any direction during the entire story, but the scenes are vivid and detailed. There is no moral. No taking sides. That had been done already. A story set of the resistance in France during WWII. But one mans story over a brief span of time. A personal story. Not a war story. Not a love story. One is left with a deep feeling of the brutality and senselessness of it all.
This was an interesting read. I don’t think the characters moved more than twenty miles in any direction during the entire story, but the scenes are vivid and detailed. There is no moral. No taking sides. That had been done already. A story set of the resistance in France during WWII. But one mans story over a brief span of time. A personal story. Not a war story. Not a love story. One is left with a deep feeling of the brutality and senselessness of it all.
August 16, 2021
I love the Alex Kovacs series of WWI historical fiction. The characters seem so real I sometimes have to remind myself that I'm reading fiction. I really prefer these type of dark and realistic type books over "thrillers", where the main character is a quasi-superhero. I think this series accurately captures the compromises and difficult decisions that people in the Resistance had to make on a regular basis. We see that the good characters are not all good and that the bad characters are not all bad and people did what they had to in order to survive.
November 9, 2021
Terrific new author
I highly recommend this series, Alex Kovacs. I am a long time reader of Ken Follett, Nelson DeMille, and Daniel Silva...to name a few of my favorite writers.Richard Wake had me laughing at the narrators inane comments only a few pages into book one of this series. He keeps you interested with the characters, and ongoing plot immediately. I like that. Minimal description, only when necessary to the story and/or timeline.
I highly recommend this series, Alex Kovacs. I am a long time reader of Ken Follett, Nelson DeMille, and Daniel Silva...to name a few of my favorite writers.Richard Wake had me laughing at the narrators inane comments only a few pages into book one of this series. He keeps you interested with the characters, and ongoing plot immediately. I like that. Minimal description, only when necessary to the story and/or timeline.
February 27, 2020
Ventures into the country as an irregular
Alex, the protagonist, heads to the hills around Limoges and joins up with a renegade group of young locals fighting the Germans in any way they can. Although Alex uses some of his spy smarts, he becomes a hands-on participant in a ragtag, but effective, local group that sticks it to the occupying Germans.
Alex, the protagonist, heads to the hills around Limoges and joins up with a renegade group of young locals fighting the Germans in any way they can. Although Alex uses some of his spy smarts, he becomes a hands-on participant in a ragtag, but effective, local group that sticks it to the occupying Germans.
December 26, 2020
Good story about French resistance
Alex is now deeply involved in French resistance but not the better known group. He becomes part of a guerrilla type group. There are twists and turns you will not foresee. The group faces formidable odds and betrayal in the II r never ending hidden battles against the Germans.
Alex is now deeply involved in French resistance but not the better known group. He becomes part of a guerrilla type group. There are twists and turns you will not foresee. The group faces formidable odds and betrayal in the II r never ending hidden battles against the Germans.
November 8, 2021
Heavy Going
The author captures the appalling occupation of France in WWII without overdoing the nastier images. On the positive side, his description of smuggling Jewish refugees to Spain captured the risks to the smugglers as well as for those being transported. The competing motivations among the anti-German and anti-Vichy French factions might have had more detail.
The author captures the appalling occupation of France in WWII without overdoing the nastier images. On the positive side, his description of smuggling Jewish refugees to Spain captured the risks to the smugglers as well as for those being transported. The competing motivations among the anti-German and anti-Vichy French factions might have had more detail.
October 2, 2022
A very enjoyable novel about the WW2 situation about occupied France etc. and the physical & mental loads/emotions that became apparent to most ordinary people, especially in France. Upon reading this novel it becomes evident that the evils of the Nazis are slowly but surely being beaten by goodness, despite slight political differences.
October 28, 2022
Pageturner
Richard Wake is one of those rare authors who writes a book that captures my attention early and doesn’t let go. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first four books in this series and plan to read them all. My only constructive feedback would be to improve the technical editing (words out of place, etc).
Richard Wake is one of those rare authors who writes a book that captures my attention early and doesn’t let go. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first four books in this series and plan to read them all. My only constructive feedback would be to improve the technical editing (words out of place, etc).
January 9, 2023
Excellent Book and Series
Another great book in a great series. Alex Kovacs and his closest friends have been fighting the good fight since the 1930's and it has always been an uphill struggle. But, they continue to find themselves in new cities and countries and one step ahead of the Gestapo.
Another great book in a great series. Alex Kovacs and his closest friends have been fighting the good fight since the 1930's and it has always been an uphill struggle. But, they continue to find themselves in new cities and countries and one step ahead of the Gestapo.
August 4, 2025
The steam is running out on this series. The Vienna book started out strong and moved along at a good pace in familiar surroundings. Zurich hit a few speed bumps and started to become less plausible. Lyon was a stretch and Limoges seemed thrown together. Not sure if I will attempt the next in the series.
April 10, 2020
Engrossing
After reading the series so far I have engaged with the characters and have become involved with their exploits which are realistic and believable.
I have enjoyed the journey so far.
After reading the series so far I have engaged with the characters and have become involved with their exploits which are realistic and believable.
I have enjoyed the journey so far.
November 28, 2020
As good as the previous books
Continues Kovacs adventures in the French resistance. Some gritty realism and shows the conflicts within the resistance and difficulties of fighting with the threat of reprisals . Well written with strong story line
Continues Kovacs adventures in the French resistance. Some gritty realism and shows the conflicts within the resistance and difficulties of fighting with the threat of reprisals . Well written with strong story line
January 31, 2021
Alex lost his heart and humor
This story has more killing in it as well as I felt Alex was much colder and his heart was gone. He was just "surviving" rather than creating his own destiny. I wanted more loving from him. The pain of lost love made him less.
This story has more killing in it as well as I felt Alex was much colder and his heart was gone. He was just "surviving" rather than creating his own destiny. I wanted more loving from him. The pain of lost love made him less.
April 5, 2021
Loving the Alex kovacs series
I have very much enjoyed all the books I've read in this series and I have one left. I was surprised to realize that although their language seemed a little contemporary at first, it actually enhanced the characters. I highly recommend this series
I have very much enjoyed all the books I've read in this series and I have one left. I was surprised to realize that although their language seemed a little contemporary at first, it actually enhanced the characters. I highly recommend this series
October 15, 2022
The Story Keeps Gettin Better
By now I am deep into the series. At about this point, many series become predictable and uninteresting. That’s not the case with this book, and I am ready to jump into the next!
By now I am deep into the series. At about this point, many series become predictable and uninteresting. That’s not the case with this book, and I am ready to jump into the next!
April 27, 2023
Alex carries on his work with the resistance in Limoges, he is worn down, drinking too much, heartbroken for his wife. In this book he puts himself in danger more than once. The Gestapo and the Vichy forces give him plenty to deal with. A very tense thriller.
May 8, 2024
Excellent WW2 historical fiction
Another very good follow-up in the Alex Kovacs series. The story documents the area, culture and environment that existed at the time. It is both educational and entertaining.
Another very good follow-up in the Alex Kovacs series. The story documents the area, culture and environment that existed at the time. It is both educational and entertaining.
January 11, 2025
Alex, Leon and C are in for a complicated ride, together? not???
Leon continues to spirit Jews out of harms way, Alex mourns the loss of his wife and C is helping the teacher in Limoges when Alex happens along!
Leon continues to spirit Jews out of harms way, Alex mourns the loss of his wife and C is helping the teacher in Limoges when Alex happens along!
January 18, 2025
This is the 4th book in the series. The plot is less ambitious and more believable than the previous 3, and gives some insight into life under German occupation. Not a literary classic, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Recommended.
August 22, 2025
I cannot stop reading this series
Alex’s experiences are thrilling, scary, and totally believable! No Superman capabilities as found in most spy novels, just a genuine, intelligent,caring man!
Richard Wake has written the best spy series I’ve read in years..
DON’T MISS THEM
Alex’s experiences are thrilling, scary, and totally believable! No Superman capabilities as found in most spy novels, just a genuine, intelligent,caring man!
Richard Wake has written the best spy series I’ve read in years..
DON’T MISS THEM
December 15, 2019
The Limoges Dilemma
This book was totally different than other WW11 stories I have read in that it addressed it from the viewpoint of those who were in the resistance and many of the choices they had to make trying to stay alive, fed and able to function. A good read that I would recommend to others.
This book was totally different than other WW11 stories I have read in that it addressed it from the viewpoint of those who were in the resistance and many of the choices they had to make trying to stay alive, fed and able to function. A good read that I would recommend to others.
January 16, 2020
Good read
Excellent book. I feel like I know the characters. Almost like I am there with them. Very good book. I enjoyed.
Excellent book. I feel like I know the characters. Almost like I am there with them. Very good book. I enjoyed.
February 27, 2020
The limoges Dilemma
An action filled story about World War Two and how the resistance operated and the different groups operated independently, lots of action!
An action filled story about World War Two and how the resistance operated and the different groups operated independently, lots of action!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews