💙📚 #BookReview – The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor #TheGhostsOfRome #TheRomeEscapeLineTrilogy #Thriller #WW2 #HistFic #BookSky #NetGalley #ARC #SecretLibraryBookBlog

Synopsis: “February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. 

Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann. 

During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk. 

Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal. 

My Review

This was a brilliant second book in The Rome Escape Line Trilogy, a fictional story based on true events that happened during the brutal Nazi occupation of Rome during World War Two.

Once again the story is told from multiple points of view, in 1944, and also later through interviews for a television programme in the 1960s, looking back at the events that took place.

I remembered how the timeline worked from the first book, so got caught up in the story straight away. It was just as tense as last time, which meant I had to put it down quite a lot to catch my breath. I appreciated the to-ing and fro-ing with the storyline as this eased the tension for me a lot.

Once again I wanted to find out more about certain events and people who’d been involved with the real Escape Line, but I managed to stop myself from going down too many Google rabbit holes.  I enjoyed this book just as much as My Father’s House, and can’t wait for the final book in the trilogy, even though I’ve no idea when it will be published. 

Highly recommended if you enjoy thrillers set in WW2.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Vintage Digital for my digital ARC.