Nichol (Midnight Cab
) easily avoids the sophomore slump with this story of love and betrayal amid the turmoil of WWII. In Nazi-occupied Rouen, France, in 1941, 16-year-old Adele Georges falls in love with a young German soldier named Manfred Halder. They carry out a secret affair while Adele's family falls apart. In a second plot line set in a small Canadian town in 1946, the discovery of a severed finger embroils the brusque police chief, Jack Cullen, in a mystery he must solve to avoid being forced into early retirement and to distract him from his son's wartime death. Back in France, Adele and Manfred are abruptly separated, and in Adele's quest to find him, she meets Canadian soldier Alex Wells, who marries her and brings her home to Canada, where tension builds as the couple adjusts to domestic life in Jack's town. In a not wholly unexpected twist, the two plots meet and the solution to Jack's investigation becomes clear. While the final chapters feel hasty, the vivid prose, harrowing plot and the defiant Adele will keep readers invested in this love story–cum–murder mystery until the very last page. (Oct.)
