Avenue of Spies: A True Stor of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alex Kershaw

There is a quote from a review by the Chicago Tribune on the cover of Avenue of Spies that reads, "Classic...constructed and written like a thriller."  Another quote on the back cover by Post and Courier states, "A gripping, taut story that will keep readers turning pages long after they should have turned out the light."  All I can say is that we must have read different books.  I have read many thrilling, page-turning books about World War II and the Resistance, but this is most definitely not one of them.

It's not that I doubt the story of American doctor Sumner Jackson, his French wife Toquette, and their son Phillip is true.  I believe it and it is an interesting story, worth noting and remembering.  I salute anyone who participated in the Resistance against the evil of Nazi Germany.  I firmly believe that stories such as theirs must be told so that history never forgets.  However, their story is just not written in a way that was compelling to me. The author, Alex Kershaw, stretched the story into a full novel by inserting facts and stories of other historical characters into the tale of the Jacksons.  He claims to have spent hours interviewing  Phillip Jackson and reading family letters, yet I barely felt like I knew the family or sensed their emotions.

I wish I could recommend this book, but honestly there are myriad other books on this topic that I have read that were much more riveting and worth my time.  Quite the opposite of page-turning, I had to force myself to finish it. I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in return for my honest review.