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Title: Slow, Predictable, and Lackluster
Review: This was dull throughout, with the only excitement at all coming at the very end, and even that was very easy to anticipate, and hardly novel. The premise was weak, the plot illogical, and the characters mostly uninteresting. The abrupt character change in Peter Fleming seems to have been designed to ensure that the reader not sympathize with anyone who cooperated at all with the occupying powers; earlier, Fleming had seemed a loyal and charming police officer with a strong sense of duty. I had hoped the book might go beyond the usual stereotypes and examine questions such as whether those British bomber pilots whose lives the hero wanted to save were doing the right thing in fire-bombing German cities. Incinerating women and children from the air might just possibly be viewed as evil, even if carried out by our British allies!
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