Who am I, reading another World War II novel!? Alas, I’ve heard so many great things about this book, and you know it’s got to be good when the library hold queue still has almost 50 people waiting when the book has been out for over a year. No renewals for me, so it moved to the top of the pile!

This is the first novel I have read by Ariel Lawhon it was excellent. Code Name Helene is a fictional account of Nancy Wake, a member of Britain’s Special Operations Executive leading resistance fighters in France. It is one of those novels that sends you straight to google every few chapters, which I love.

Bringing a plucky heroine to life without seeming trite is a difficult needle to thread, and Lawhon really nails it. Helene is portrayed in absolute technicolor: fallible, relatable, endearing, funny, and I could understand all of her motivations. I loved the way the two very close timelines, of her meeting her husband before the war and of her time with the resistance just a few years later, come together. Little details that seem small become significant, and significant scenes gain clarity with small details. I just love a full circle moment, and Helene is rife with them.


The sections of the book detailing Nancy’s time during the war were quite dense in the beginning and I felt like I was being delivered facts and names through a fire hose. For some, that might not be as appealing as the timeline of her romantic drama before the war. But I was riveted by both and look forward to reading more of Lawhon's work!