"Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

An audio book.

An English woman during WW2 is being interrogated in Germany. She's giving away code-sets in return for blankets and her clothes. The other prisoners have resisted. She's feeling guilty. She writes what she knows about RAF activities. The pilot who delivered her to France, Maddie, had been brought up by a mechanic grandfather whereas the author went to a Swiss school then a university.

She writes about her work in return for not being tortured. Her female guard, Engel, translates her writing. Her torturer, von Lindon, who she doesn't often see, realises that she's using literary devices - the Queenie character in the stories is her. We learn about the life of women pilots in WW2, "ferrying clapped out Tiger Moths". She knows that when she finishes her story she'll be killed. At the end it seems she is.

In Part 2, Maddie is the 1st person PoV. She landed after Queenie (Julie) had parachuted out. She'd brought in explosives for the Resistance. The Resistance find her. Paul, who she's met before, is among the Resistance. She stays with a family one of whom works for the Gestapo. She learns about Julie's capture and treatment. When Julie's on the way to being killed, Maddie shoots her dead to save her from being a subject of medical experiments - that's what she wanted. Engel leaks info to them. Maddie learns that Julie didn't reveal any useful info.

We learn that Maddie's back in England before we're told about the successful Resistance raid on the Gestapo's HQ. She confesses to killing Julie, and worries about being guilty of murder. Julie's mother (a Lady) and brother (the pilot who collected her from France) forgive her. She learns that von Lindon killed himself. Engel contacts Maddie from Berlin.

There's a note from the author at the end, saying that her literary background is like Julie's. To avoid using the same voice for Maddie, the writer turned to weather and flying when she was tempted to put literary thoughts into Maddie's head.

I didn't realise it was a YA book until I read the reviews.

Other reviews

• Wolfheart (It took me a very, very long time to get into the first half of the book, and there were times when I considered giving up on it completely – mainly because I struggled to follow what was going on, and was confused by all the coded abbreviations, plane jargon, jumping between different time periods, and rambling writing style ... Moving into the second half, the story becomes so utterly absorbing that it is nearly impossible to put it down)
• Marjorie Ingall (I do think “Code Name Verity” will appeal more to adults than to teenagers