Dancing with deception by Catherine McCullagh
Big Sky Publishing, 2017. ISBN 9781925520866
(Age: Adult) Recommended. Themes: War - WWII. Truth and lies. A
beautiful girl, growing up in a privileged life in Sydney with
beautiful clothes, music and suitors, defies her socialite mother to
pursue her own interests and to become a nurse. Along the way she
also hides much of herself from scrutiny - she does not fit the
family expectation to marry well to someone from the social elite.
In fact she explores a sexual relationship that should never happen
and the reader is very aware that she walks a very fine line; one
mistake and she would be plunged into disaster. Her beauty and
demeanour though enable her to glide through this deception, until
she makes herself available as a nurse in London as the Second World
War is about to begin. Eventually the brave and determined woman
serves in a Red Cross hospital in Paris becoming a critical
participant in the local Resistance. Strangely, her beauty places
her into the arms and bed of a local Gestapo Agent and she must
again walk the line of deception, always afraid of revealing too
much information in the arms of a man who could have many innocent
lives destroyed. Will she be the one that destroys the Resistance
group's effectiveness? Is her own life in danger?
This is a love story and a war story, woven with lies and deception
which together have created an impressive historical saga. The
author's own military and historical knowledge are evident (even
though there are fictitious elements to the story - eg no Red Cross
hospital actually existed in Paris during WWII). Revelation of the
bravery of many ordinary folk involved in the subterfuge of the
Resistance movement is amazingly told. But essentially this is a
story of a very brave and beautiful woman, whose intelligence and
personality shine through the events and tragedies. This is a saga
that adults would enjoy, and it is deftly written, a little 'racy'
in parts; some violence described, but with reservation; and
characters that have interesting quirks as well as those that
display all the worst aspects of war-time horrors and the pursuit of
power.
Recommended for adult readers.
Carolyn Hull