Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin

As the German army invades the Netherlands in 1940, Aleida van der Zee Martens escapes to London to wait out the Occupation. Separated from her three-year-old son, Theo, in the process, the young widow desperately searches for her little boy even as she works for an agency responsible for evacuating children to the countryside. When German bombs set London ablaze, BBC radio correspondent Hugh Collingwood reports on the Blitz, eager to boost morale while walking the fine line between truth and censorship. But the Germans are not the only ones Londoners have to fear as a series of murders flame up amid the ashes. The deaths hit close to home for Hugh, and Aleida needs his help to locate her missing son. As they work together, they grow closer and closer, both to each other and the answers they seek. But with bombs falling and continued killings, they may be running out of time.

I enjoyed the change of pace in this WWII book; its backbone is still the history, with a focus on 1940-1941 London, but the personal stories are what really make it. In some ways, it has more in common with a mystery/suspense novel, as Aleida searches for her missing son and Hugh researches his uncle's murder (I absolutely did not suspect the murderer, for all that the clues were there). In the midst of it, there's the air raids, Hugh's work as a broadcaster for the BBC Radio, Aleida's work with child evacuations, and the moral/ethical issues of censorship and telling the truth versus boosting moral.

Sarah Sundin's research is always excellent, and this book is no different. Aleida's search for son is especially heart-breaking, but also uplifting.

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