First off, I feel this is a 3.5 but I'm giving it 4, as some of the reviewers on here have been too harsh.

JACKDAWS takes the standard D-Day spy stories but twists it by focusing on the Historical female agents, or, as they were known, something of the unsung heroes.

This particular tale focuses on a female agent who is trying to knock down the phone lines of an SS HQ but needs to do it as cleaning ladies. So, after failing her first attempt, she heads back to the UK where she, and other govt officials, recruit several female agents for training.

All of these women are untrained and have to do a crash course in spycraft.

Thereafter, the next half of the book entails the women parachuting into France, some of them getting caught or killed and then moving in on the mission. Expect the usual "B" love story.

Story is very good in pacing, and, while some of the characters have the archetypal element, I felt he did a good job creating a diverse selection.

When he wrote EYE OF THE NEEDLE the market was less saturated with WWII stories. Now, they're all over the place, so, he has less of the market, the stories overlap more and expectations are higher for newer and newer stories.

This one is above average to good but not quite either in definition. If you want to read him for the first time, I'd recommend EYE OF THE NEEDLE.

OVERALL GRADE: B.

Loved it! Fast-paced and full of twists and turns.

Superior thriller that takes place during WWII from Follett. High recommendation.

Flick Clairet, spia inglese alla quale, durante la seconda guerra mondiale, viene affidata una missione della massima importanza per la riuscita dell'invasione alleata in Normandia: distruggere la centrale telefonica del castello di Sainte-Cécile, centro nevralgico per le comunicazioni tra Francia e Germania. La sua distruzione rallenterebbe la risposta dei nazisti all'invasione ma per poter entrare nel castello Flick dovrà creare una squadra di sole donne e fingersi donne delle pulizie. Le gazze ladre, nome in codice della squadra, verranno paracadutate in Francia, in territorio nemico, e il fallimento non è ammesso. In questo romanzo Follett gioca col lettore, nulla è scontato, tutto può accadere e portare alla morte. Un romanzo forte, avvincente e crudo che cattura il lettore e lo ipnotizza portandolo indietro nel tempo, al tempo duro e spietato della guerra. Oltre alla bellezza del romanzo e dei personaggi un collegamento mi ha colpito: mentre Flick opera in Normandia per portare l'Inghilterra alla vittoria, in Inghilterra Die Nadel opera per far vincere la Germania. Avrei voluto leggere di un incontro tra i due.

rating: 3/5

Days before D-Day there is a high priority Nazi target on French soil that needs to be destroyed. However, there is a catch, only an all-female team can gain access to it. Flick is put in charge of this quickly formed, ragtag team as they attempt to fulfill their dangerous mission.

Loved the action, the plot, and the kick-ass female protagonist. The POV mostly alternated between Flick, the British agent on French soil, and Dieter, a Nazi commander. I had chills from viewing through a window into Dieter's head, especially during the torture scenes which left me feeling uncomfortable; he seemed to be the best developed and most complex character in the entire novel.

Most action occurred as Flick commanded a female unit in an attack on a Nazi target while Dieter pursued them. The plot revolved around a topic I've never read about before, British agents working with the French resistance during WWII. The plot was exciting, quick, fun to read, and kept me turning the page.

It's a great fast-paced action book; however, the character development mostly just wasn't there. There is a huge supporting cast of secondary characters but they are all two-dimensional (with two characters behaving in such an idiotic way that just didn't seem believable). Some of the characters are LGBT, they are badly written and stereotypical, but the straight characters seemed like they were taken from a stereotype encyclopedia so I didn't take offense. I couldn't connect with any of them.

Additionally, the romance element seemed like something lifted from a Harlequin novel. The sex scene was the most awful thing I've ever read and completely unnecessary. And the ending was too neat, wrapping up everything just oh so perfectly.

If you are looking for a non-cognitively involving but fast-paced action-y quick read, then this is the novel to pick up.

Πάρα πολύ ωραίο

Based on a true story of a "Dirty Dozen" group of women who parachuted into occupied France prior to the D-Day invasion, this book has the elements of a good story but is so poorly written that it interferes with one's enjoyment. This is surprising as Follett has the capability to write well; to wit: Eye of the Needle and other thrillers. One wonders if he did not just dash off this one for the loot. Additionally, his protagonists are normally male and he does not do a very good job getting into a female psyche.

Very exciting story, had to put it down at times because the suspense was too much for me, but still only three stars because KF's sex scenes are just too much, and his Dickensian epilogues annoy the heck out of me (I guess I could just not read them).

The plot of Jackdaws is pretty straightforward--in the days leading up the Allied invasion of France in 1945, British spies, working with the French resistance, are trying to blow up a crucial telephone exchange in Nazi-occupied France. The first attempt fails, with much of the team being captured and tortured. One of the members of that team, a skilled female operative named Flick, escapes back to London and argues for a follow-on team. The British government agrees, given the importance of the target, but spies are in short supply at this point in the war, so Flick ends up forming an all female team of highly inexperienced women to make a second attempt on the target. They will parachute into France, and infiltrate the castle housing the telephone exchange by posing as cleaning women. The book also tells the parallel story of the German officer who makes it his mission to capture Flick and force her to give up her contacts in the resistance.

Despite my intense interest in history and the compelling subject of this book, I found it an incredibly boring, and predictable, read. The story never really comes to life and just sort of plays out to the ultimate conclusion--the completion of the mission, the daring escape, set against the backdrop of the well-known Allied invasion and ultimate German defeat.

I've heard good things about other Follett books, so one should look elsewhere for a first Follett book to read.

I don't think I'm cut out for thrillers and espionage. All throughout this book, I kept grimacing and wincing and putting it down because I simply couldn't stand the suspense. In a two-hour movie, I'm dandy; but I don't have the nerves for a 400+ page book. I guess that means this was a good read? Depends on your perspective, right?

I liked seeing a different style of Ken Follett's writing and I think he did a really good job telling the story. Reminded me a lot of The Nightingale and All the Light we Cannot See.

This novel takes place during World War Two in Occupied France. The main protagonist is Felicity(Flick) Clairet. She as been chosen to lead a group of women, mostly English, into Sainte-Cecile to sabotage its telephone system in order to prevent the Germans from any communications on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Jackdaws is an exciting novel to read; in which the reader would hardly want to put down before finishing.