Freya Jorgensen is not her real name. Charlotte de Tournet had to hide her true identity when the Nazis rolled into Paris. The SS took over her Avenue Foch mansion, Le Palais, for use by high-ranking Nazis as a place to relax away from the war.

She is young and beautiful and is held virtually captive in her Paris mansion. Her only trusted friend is Theodora, a Turkish prostitute and courtesan at Le Palais. Freya unwisely falls in love with a handsome SS officer, Jost Krupp.

As Freya discovers her lover is a mass and indiscriminate killer, she and Theodora escape Le Palais before her identity is discovered and the mansion is blown up. With the help of Baron Ferdi Saumures, they flee Paris and travel to southwest France and meet British SOE agent, Bertrand.

Freya’s adventures are just beginning.

Hugo Woolley was born in West Sussex. He is married with two grown-up children. His mother was an eccentric picture restorer. His father a farmer and lawyer. As a dyslexic, he went to a myriad of schools, mainly because, in those days, dyslexia had hardly been invented, let alone treated. It was known as ‘word-blindness’ and dyslectics were thought to be ‘simple’ and below intelligence. How wrong they were!

Hugo is a caterer by training, ran various bars and restaurants in London before starting his own sandwich shops in the City of London in 1984 with his youngest brother, Oliver. In 1993 he opened designer sausage shops in Kent and Sussex, well before sausages became a fad. Unfortunately, after just over a year of trading, he was badly injured in a car accident and was airlifted to hospital, where Hugo remained for eight months being glued back together. Whilst in hospital he started writing, mainly about his experience during ‘my crippledom’ – as he called it.

In 2002, when Hugo was mainly recovered, he moved to Cornwall. After over twenty years running a boutique small hotel just outside of Padstow, with his wife, Hugo has retired and has moved to a quiet village on the edges of Bodmin Moor, where he continues writing.

Sandra M (NetGalley Reviewer)

What an amazing book. I did not want to put it down from the start. I have learnt more about the war in France than I knew before and to learn that is facts embroiled with some storytelling to enhance the story was lovely. I have visited Oradour sur Glain and I was struck by the whole scene but I had not realised that this was not the village that they were told to destroy to find the German being kept prisoner. I lived for 10 years in Belgium where we could visit so many war torn areas but this book magnified my knowledge and my emotions a thousand times over.

The characters throughout are so real and their emotions were being worn on their sleeves as well as in my heart as I read. It deserves a 10 out of 5 and I shall certainly encourage as many people as I can to read this book.

I shall now look for other books by this incredibly clever author who brought the terrible scenes to life in such a manner.

This is the second book in the trilogy and it is a stand alone book. I have now ordered the first in the series and shall get the third as soon as possible.