V2

Readers of WW2 stories will probably enjoy this for its subject matter, and I’d recommend it as such. But I’d also I’d recommend it to any writer who wants to see an almost perfect narrative at work.

 

Robert Harris slips effortlessly between two main storylines: one about a WAAF joining a team looking for the launch sites of Germany’s V2 rockets in 1944, and the second about an engineer in the German V2 team. Woven into both are descriptions of how the V2 worked, how it started as an amateur project by rocket-obsessed students, how the Nazi party took it over, and the effect it had on its targets in London in the last months of the war.

At no point does the pace lag. Despite the digressions into the V2’s history, you always know where you are in the story; Robert Harris picks just the right spots to break away from the main storyline. It’s gripping, atmospheric and moves at just the right pace. I make no claims for it as great literature – I doubt Robert Harris would either – but I do think it’s a superb example of how beautifully constructed and written a good thriller can be.

It’s a wonderful piece of storytelling.