NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS

Sharpshooter Kate Rees returns to the City of Lights for a longer but no less harrowing mission than she had in Three Hours in Paris (2020).

After losing her husband and daughter in a German airstrike, Kate wants nothing more than to avenge her family’s death on every Nazi within range. The skills with a rifle she developed growing up in rural Oregon paired with the ease of disguising her as a housewife or nurse make her a favorite sniper of the War Department’s Alfred Stepney. Before sending her back to Paris with the task of taking out Kurt Lange, Gen. Rommel’s right-hand man, Stepney reminds her to trust no one. But that warning places serious constraints on Black’s mission as a storyteller. As characters flash by—Dieter von Holz, the RAF pilot who ferries Kate to Paris; German double agent Jaro; Polish freedom fighter Odile; her liaison in Paris, Richards, who escorts her to British HQ in Cairo; her Cairo guide, Sasha; and shrewd belly dancer Nadira—Kate doesn’t really connect with anyone. If no one can be trusted, readers have no one to root for. Black packs lots of action and rich local color into her tale of danger. But without characters to invest in, readers may be left with what amounts to an album of travel photos: exotic and colorful but with nothing to harness the heart.

Strictly for action/adventure fans.