“The riveting latest from O’Connor (Shadowplay), the first in a trilogy, chronicles the meticulous planning and execution of the escape of hundreds of Allied prisoners and Jews hiding in Vatican City during WWII. It’s December 1943 and Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty and seven associates who refer to themselves as “the Choir” have exploited the Vatican’s sovereignty as a minuscule neutral state to hide refugees from the Nazi occupation of Rome in numerous abandoned sheds, bombed-out buildings, and tunnels...Through wonderfully developed and varied characters, O’Connor conveys both the painful privations of life during wartime and the nobility of the Choir’s goals... A storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction.”
Read the full review in Publishers Weekly.
