The novel’s evocative scene-setting, its propulsive narration and its powerful depiction of bravery and unity in extremis, all make for an engrossing read.

These transcripts both deepen the sense of character and also bring about a tension as you try to piece together what will happen on the plan for Christmas Eve, 1943, when a major plan is about to unfold. The story can get overly descriptive and wordy at times, these characters can be a chatty bunch as they reminisce, but their stories do put us right there with Hugh and the people he worked with so closely. This annoys not only the nazis but also incurs the wrath of the Vatican, worried about their neutral status.It's thought that through O'Flaherty, with the help of his choir and surrounding network, over 6,000 people were saved. The visits were stopped and O’Flaherty became Hauptmann’s arch enemy as the Nazi suspected him of being a sympathiser (or more) of the Escape Line. In a narrative that shifts from 1943 and the future, we are given insights and experiences of the period through the perspectives in the 1960s of the widely disparate and fascinating cast of the Choir, that included the likes of Sir Guy D'Arcy Osborne, the wily John May who can get his hands on almost anything, the beautiful and grieving Contessa Landini and 40 year old singer and diplomat's wife, Delia Kiernan. Describing his first encounter with his future employer and fellow member of the choir, Sir D’Arcy Osborne, in a Soho nightclub frequented by gay men: ‘So Sir D’Arcy’s in one midnight with a couple of his old school muckers and they’re larking about with the drag boys.

As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don't always mean what they say. I’m happy I investigated this ‘great escape’ novel set in the Vatican during WW2 and featuring an Irishman and an escape route I’d never heard of before. Their cover is a choir and the choristers are Delia Kieran, wife to the senior Irish diplomat at the Vatican, Marianna de Vries, a Dutch, freelance journalist, Sir D’Arcy Osborne, the British ambassador, Enzo Angelucci, former new stand owner, Sam Derry, an escaped British prisoner of war, John May is the resourceful man servant to the ambassador, Contessa Giovanna Landini, a widow, and the “conductor” is Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty.This is a great book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in history or Mr O'Connor's work or even those who simply enjoy a very well written piece of historical fiction. The story is set in Nazi-occupied Rome during December 1943 and unfolds as a countdown towards 'a mission'.