Review
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Title: Traitor
Author: Sandra Grey
Publisher: Covenant Communications
Genre: Historical Fiction
Year Published: 2008
Number of Pages: 348
Binding: Soft cover
ISBN: 978-1-59811-358-1
Price: $16.95
Reviewed by Rob Ficiur
In 1943 World War II is raging across Europe. Hitler was winning the war. It was a time of unrest across the world. D-Day (also known as the Battle of Normandy) would not take place until May 1944. From here the allies would gradually reclaim Europe from the Nazis. However, when Sandra Grey began this novel six months before D-Day, we are losing the war.
Officially Marie parachutes into German occupied France to be part of the French resistance. In reality, Marie wants to be beside her fiancée Felix as he leads covert attacks against the Germans.
I had this book all figured out within the first few pages. Marie and Felix were going to be the stars of the French underground. They would save France and the allies and then live happily ever after. WRONG!
On her first covert mission with Felix, the underground is surrounded by German soldiers. Felix is shot and killed. Marie is taken prisoner by the enemy. I enjoy a book that deviates from the standard predictable pattern. (How many TV shows are so poorly written that after ten minutes you can already predict the plot?)
The Nazi officer who come to Marie’s side as Felix lay dying utters an unusual order to his soldiers. “I will get a doctor for him, Mademoiselle…” the man’s voice sounded strangely tight and Marie stared at him, surprised. (page 37). Later when the same Major Rolf Schulmann interrogats Marie he makes other non-Nazi like comments. “Even though it is hard for you to believe, I am sorry for your loss. It is never easy to lose someone you love.” (page 4
.
Schulmann’s interrogations are noting like Marie had been trained to expect from the Nazis. When the Gestapo Officer Captain Dresdan takes over Marie’s interrogation, the verbal and physical abuse is more in line with what she expects. Dresdan decides to take Marie to headquarters for further interrogations.
As Marie rides in Dredan’s vehicle on her way to her death sentence, the vehicle is involved in a minor accident. Before Dresdan and his men could deal with the accident, armed men take Marie away from her captor…but to where?
The Traitor in the novel is Major Rolf Schulman. He arranges through the French underground to kidnap Marie and whisk her to his remote cottage in another area of France. There Marie is given the job of tending Rolf’s two year old son, Alma. Through miraculous circumstances Rolf Schulman and his wife joined the Church in the days before World War II broke out. One of the men instrumental in Rolf’s conversion was Marie’s fiancée Felix.
Why would a converted Latter-day Saint be a German officer in World War II? As the book progresses Marie and the reader come to see the struggle that Rolf went through to maintain his faith in a time of trial. What sacrifices and trials did the faithful endure during this (and other) trying times in history? Rolf takes Marie to a Sacrament Meeting where a SS Soldier comes and passes the Sacrament.
In writing a book review I don’t want to give away any more of the conflict and plot than I have to. As I read this book, way past what should have been sleep, the author brought to life the miracles and faith these people needed to get through the challenges they faced. I wondered how often we access the powers of heaven to have miracles in our lives today.
As I was reading the final pages of the book, it was like a movie that was ending too soon. How can this all be wrapped up in the few pages that were left? As I reached the end of the novel, there was Chapter One of the sequel. When is that coming out? I can’t leave Marie and Rolf there, I must read the rest so that they can get through the trials the war brought to them.
This is Sandra Grey’s first novel. I appreciated the seamless way in which history was woven into the lives of the fictional characters. I high recommend this book to anyone who wants to relive this unique time in LDS History.
