This book somehow manages to be both an over the top ridiculous spy thriller and boring. It's told from the perspectives of an American spy attempting to assassinate Hitler, her handlers back in England, and the Nazi officer hunting her down.

I couldn't get into the main character or her situation because it was so unrealistic. Kate is a spy who's received, at most, a couple of weeks of training. Then she's dumped in Paris with a gun, a little bit of money, and no contacts or escape plan. She doesn't know how she's meant to get to the church where she's meant to assassinate Hitler (no one arrives to take her), but she does. She doesn't know how she's supposed to run away, but she does. She doesn't know how to contact anyone in the spy network, but she does. All of this with barely any training. Even the Nazi officer attempting to track her down comments on how intelligent and experienced and highly trained she is. None of it makes sense and the suspension of disbelief required was too much for me.

This book takes place in the span of 36 hours after the attempted assassination. There's a tiny bit on either side, but the majority is just the same day and a half. It's all just Gunter, the Nazi, hunting for Kate who's on the run. With how much happens, you'd really think it would take a little more time. Kate runs, Gunter follows. Kate hides, Gunter searches. Kate is afraid, Gunter is determined. That is the entire book. It's very formulaic because nothing outside of that has time to happen. There's very little reflection or character growth because it's all running and hiding. I was bored. I wanted something else to happen.

I also found myself a bit annoyed by Gunter's character. He's a Nazi, so obviously the "bad guy," but he's still one of the good ones. He doesn't even like Hitler. He supports justice. He doesn't want to murder anyone without a trial, you see, he's just following orders. Like someone didn't watch the Nuremberg trials. He wasn't meant to be a good guy, but he was definitely supposed to stand apart from the other "bad" Nazis. I've read plenty of books where Nazis have been humanized, because of course they were real people, but there's a difference between humanizing a character and giving him a "not like like other Nazis" story.

Other little things annoy me. At one point just after shooting at Hitler, Katie is stopped and searched by Nazis. She has the rifle in a bag and while they search her person, they never bother actually looking in the bag. Like what idiocy. She also has a very obvious American accent when speaking French (this is stated during her minimal spy training at the beginning), and yet no one seems to notice while she's running around Paris.

The writing also seemed kind of rough. I honestly thought this was a debut novel until I read more about Cara Black. It just doesn't read smoothly. At one point, Kate is having a conversation with her friend. For three straight pages, every time Kate had a line of dialogue, she addressed Greer with her name. Literally every single one. It was ridiculous.

Perhaps you would enjoy this more than me if you like over the top spy thrillers and don't mind suspending your disbelief a little more than. Or if you also enjoy the concept of a chase taking place over an entire book. But I really didn't enjoy this one. It was disappointing and I was more relieved to finish it than anything else.

This is a review of an ARC I received.