Reviewed by Emma Crowley
London, 1941. The war has already taken everything from Annie. Her sweetheart Harry returned from the front with broken limbs and grief-stricken eyes, and her father betrayed his family by joining the Nazis. But with each new day at her desk in the War Office, a flame burns inside her to right her father’s wrongs and do everything she can to stop the war…
Nuremberg Trials, 1946. The war is over, but the search for justice is just beginning. Annie’s stomach churns when she sees Margarete outside the courtroom. This woman stole her father away and was one of the last people inside Hitler’s bunker. Since the war ended Margarete has continued to support the Nazis. Annie knows this is her only chance to expose her.
But if she tells the truth, Annie must also reveal her father ‘s dark past, putting her own family’s safety at risk. With an impossible choice to make, will Annie have the courage to tell the world the truth about who Margarete really is, no matter the cost?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Girl Who Told The Truth and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Catherine Hokin’s new novel, The Girl Who Told the Truth, provides the reader with a fascinating and in depth account of the rise of Fascism in Britain and beyond. The story is told from two sides, that of young British girl Anna whose father Sid is a fervent member of Mosley’s fascist group, The British Union of Fascists. On the other side we have Margarete (Grete) whose fanatical obsession with Hitler, his beliefs, policies and methods makes her a very dangerous, sharp, cunning and cruel person. I say opposite sides because although Anna comes from a household where fascism and nothing else rules, both herself and her mother are firmly against it. Anna even more so we discover right from the prologue when an incident befalls her mother which changes her irrevocably. Said incident fuels the fire that burns within Anna right from the get go to avenge what was done and help bring down Fascism in all its facets. She becomes as the title suggest the girl who told the truth and in doing this, she takes herself down a very challenging path littered with secrets, suspicion, vulnerability and uncertainty.
Overall, I found this to be a very good book and it was definitely an eye opener into how Hitler rose to power and how those around him enabled this to happen as they become so entrenched and swayed by what he was promising so many. I had previously heard of Oswald Mosley but had never read anything in depth regarding his party and what they tried to achieve in Britain. For all the wrong reasons I might add. Clearly lots of research was undertaken by the author and plenty of detail is provided throughout the book so I really felt I was learning about an aspect of the war that I had given scant thought to. I enjoyed the fact that it didn’t overly go into detail about the war itself and the various battles and its timeline. We all know that and I’ve read lost of books which do this. Instead there the characters, their motivations and ambitions are given the opportunity to shine and Anna’s quest shows her to be utterly fearless as she is determined to right a wrong. Time and time again she goes against the beliefs of Sid and the party she is a member and as her father likes to think he is Mosley’s right hand man, Anna finds herself at the centre of everything. It’s how she uses this power which is both riveting and intriguing.
The book is split into several parts spanning a ten year period starting in 1936. It becomes dark at times and in a way stifling but that fits with the themes of the book and the situations Anna finds herself in. She bides her time and takes many an unexpected turn for what she wishes to achieve can’t be done overnight. I did feel the first half of the book was quite slow and at times I did struggle to get through it but I am so glad I persisted because at the midway point I felt things were changing. Things were starting to occur and there was more action and I felt as if Anna could possibly succeed in her tasks. For up until that point not much seem to have occurred. Yes, the foundations were set, an outline was provided but where was it going to go and what would Anna become embroiled in. The plot needed that moment of action that would lead to a climax and a fallout and when that occurred I found myself reading through the chapters much quicker to see what the eventual outcome would be and what twists and turns would await me as I journeyed to that point.
Anna was a brave young woman to go against the belief system that her father was so caught up in. She wasn’t of the same stance that aliens meaning Jews or those Hitler believed not were not fit for society could be in Britain taking up everyone’s jobs. Sid always put Britain first and yes to an extent you can do that but not in the manner in which the Fascist party wanted this to happen. Sid was controlling, obsessive, bitter, twisted and a bully with a temper. He ruled with an iron fist and Peggy, Anna’s mother, lived in a place of fear. I think Anna was much more able to stand up to her father but she played a cunning game in that she kept him on side so she could get access to the lion’s den. She used this to her advantage to glean information and when the time was right she would this in the best possible way. The politics her father had chosen to follow had something very dark at its heart and it would shape his family’s lives. Six long years of the war sees Anna meet Harry who works for a London newspaper. He falls deeply in love with her and he is desperate to marry her. She feels the same way about him but feels marriage can’t occur until her mission is done. She wouldn’t be happy being a stay at home housewife especially given the newfound freedom the war provided so many women. Harry’s war experiences deeply affect him but Anna is quietly pushing on with things and working in Intelligence in the Ministry. Infiltration becomes the game and she plays this well, but I mustn’t forget Margarete for she was a whole different kettle of fish.
Margarete first appears as an au pair to Mosley’s children for a brief period of time. Attending a party with her parents at Mosley’s countryside home Anna, then only 13, encounters Margarete. From that first brief meeting, Anna knows Margarete is dangerous and is firmly entrenched within Hitler’s camp and without giving anything away the incident I previously mentioned is the fuel that fires Anna throughout the book. She wants justice but Margarete is very astute and is always one step ahead. She views situations from very angle and is constantly thinking of the bigger picture. She gets people caught in a trap and they only become deeply entangled with no chance of clawing their way out. I found Margarete to be callous and evil. Her idolisation of Hitler did nothing to endear her to me and had no redeeming characteristics at all. She was sinister, cold and calculating and took great pleasure from tormenting Anna. She treated people with disdain, using and abusing them and casting them aside when she was done with them. The German fighter pilot Hans being one of them.
Margarete’s experiences of war and how she became so closely to Hitler and working with him in his lair were rich in detail and fascinating but really there was nothing I could find to like about her. The period after the war which I felt was the best part of the book was brilliant from Margarete’s stand point. She came into her own although I didn’t like what she was doing and all her game playing came to fruition. The war may be over but Margarete refuses to believe it and she feels one day National Socialism which in her mind is the only way of living will once again rise to the fore and she will be there continuing her obedience to a man who was gone but whose rotten legacy has made a detrimental impact on the world. I found it incredible that so many Nazi’s and Margarete in this case could escape Germany and infiltrate Britain but saying that this still occurs today with often disastrous consequences. Like Anna, I found it frustrating that Margarete was near yet so far and I questioned whether it would be in fact Margarete who won the upper hand. The second half of the book as I have mentioned really ramped things up and as Margarete works to rebuild socialism and complete a request bestowed upon her I was became deeply engrossed.
Reading the author’s end notes it was interesting to see alongside the real life characters that I was familiar with that Margarete was based off of Boorman’s secretary. Although none of the secretary’s in Hitler’s lair ever gave away anything post war I do think Catherine Hokin has done a brilliant job of bringing Margarete to life and giving the reader a glimpse into a dark, murky and deadly world. There is plenty of tension and twists and turns to keep the reader hooked especially in the later half. Anna is a remarkable character and I suppose Margarete is too but for all the wrong reasons. Is Anna successful in the mission I purposely was evasive about well pick up a copy of The Girl Who Told the Truth and discover this and much more.
No comments:
Post a Comment