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Jackdaws Hardcover – December 1, 2001

by Ken Follett (Author)

4.5 14,618 ratings

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With the Allies preparing for the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe, Felicity "Flick" Clariet, an agent in the ranks of the British Special Operations Executive, is given the job of destroying German lines of communications, but when her mission goes tragically wrong, she is forced to enlist the aid of an all-woman team, none professionals, to take on the suicidal task. 500,000 first printing.

Print length

451 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dutton
Publication date

December 1, 2001
Dimensions

6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0525946284
ISBN-13

978-0525946281
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Popular Highlights in this book

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Sir Stewart Menzies, the foxhunting head of MI6, hated intellectuals, communists, and homosexuals, but Alan Turing, the mathematical genius who led the codebreakers, was all three.
Highlighted by 160 Kindle readers
The morning mists of romantic love had lifted, and in the clear daylight of married life she could see that he was vain, self-absorbed, and unreliable.
Highlighted by 143 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Penzler Pick, November 2001: Each book by Ken Follett, one of the most successful suspense writers of our time, is a welcome event. With Jackdaws, he returns to his most successful era, the darkest days of World War II.

It is 1944 and the Allies are preparing for the invasion of Europe. In the occupied town of Sainte-Cecile, the French Resistance is preparing to blow up the chateau that now houses the crucial telephone exchange connecting the French telephone system to that of Germany. Bombers have been unable to inflict enough damage on the chateau to disrupt communications for more than a few hours at a time, but the Allies need to make sure that communications is down for longer so that there will be as little warning of the invasion as possible.

Felicity Clariet, known as Flick, is a British secret agent patrolling the streets around the chateau waiting for the first explosions that will give the signal for the attack to begin. She is married to Michel, a Resistance fighter. When the operation goes horribly wrong, they barely escape with their lives and Flick returns to her home in London--but not for long. When Flick returns to France it will be as part of an audacious, quickly assembled plan to put female spies in the chateau as telephone operators and cleaners, enabling the Allies to destroy the ability of the Exchange to warn Germany in advance of the landing on the beaches of Normandy. The twists and turns of the plot will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Follett tells us that Jackdaws is based on a true story. The Special Operations Executive sent 50 women into France as secret agents. Thirty-six survived. --Otto Penzler

From Publishers Weekly

Returning to the WWII setting of the novels that made him famous, Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca, Follett (Code to Zero) delivers a very entertaining, very cinematic thriller about a ragtag, all-female band of British agents, code-named Jackdaws, sent to blow up a key telephone exchange in France on the eve of D-Day. Well, not quite all female: one "woman" recruited for the job by heroine Felicity Clairet, aka Flick, a major with the British Special Operations Executive, is a transvestite and that's just one among many twists that make this novel such fun. Opposed to Flick and her team are two Nazi villains whose escape from central casting doesn't keep them from playing their parts with zest: suave and urbane Maj. Dieter Franck, a master of psychological and physical torture, charged with breaking the Resistance in northern France, and Sturmbannfuhrer Willi Weber, brutal guardian of the chateau that houses the telephone exchange. The action runs over 10 days. After a failed assault by the Resistance on the chateau, an assault that introduces the novel's key players, Flick returns to England, racing the clock to recruit a team of women who can infiltrate the chateau by posing as its French domestics; among her selections are an imprisoned murderess, an aristocrat and that transvestite. The English scenes are interesting enough but lack suspense, which Follett supplies in spades by cutting to France, where Major Franck tracks Resistance members and gets wind of Flick's mission which, when at last underway, will enthrall readers. Adventure, romance, derring-do and a bit too much nasty violence crowd the pages of what promises to be one of Follett's most popular novels ever. Major ad/promo; simultaneous abridged and unabridged audio from Penguin Audio.

From Library Journal

It is days before the Allied invasion of Normandy, and the all-woman operation "Jackdaws" is set to infiltrate Europe's largest telephone exchange and sabotage German communications. Felicity "Flick" Clariet, one of the few British female operatives working in France, heads the team, but her confidence has taken a beating: the previous operation that she directed was a disastrous failure, and her philandering husband has gone missing. Flick's nemesis, the ruthless and sadistic Nazi officer Dieter Franck, occasionally regrets the terrible things he does, but it doesn't stop him from pressing on. Nor does our heroine regret executing traitors, all the while falling in love with American Paul Chancellor. An exciting look at the dangerous world of courageous souls who confronted the Nazi monster in its lair, Follett's latest (after Code to Zero) will not disappoint fans. For all collections.
- Robert Conroy, Warren, MI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Follett is a very limited writer: he does plot-driven, breakneck-paced thrillers. That's all he does, but he does them very well. He's dead on-target this time, updating that World War II workhorse in which a gang of misfits goes behind Nazi lines to do the impossible. Yes, it's The Dirty Dozen, but here it's recast as The Dirty Half-Dozen, Girl Version. The impossible mission is to take out a German telephone exchange near Reims in the last few hours before D-Day. A full-frontal assault led by British SOE (Special Operations Executives) Felicity "Flick" Clariet and her husband, a French Resistance leader, has failed, leaving the Allies with only a last-minute desperation plan: a team of six women, posing as a cleaning detail, will infiltrate the exchange and dismantle it. Flick has only a few hours to round up her team, and she must choose from a handful of SOE rejects, as well as the odd prisoner and sharpshooting aristocrat. Outsiders for the twenty-first century, the assembled team includes two lesbians, a German transvestite, and a gypsy. All of this may sound like cliched melodrama, but when Follett starts the clock and slips the narrative gearshift into synchromesh, one's literary misgivings are abandoned in the wake of the plot's forward thrust. A handful of romantic subplots show Follett's weaknesses at dramatizing human relationships, but, fortunately, he knows not to dally overlong with the subtle stuff. This is not the equal of Eye of the Needle (one of the few times when Follett created a full-bodied character to go with a stunning story), but it is thoroughly entertaining all the same. A movie version with Madonna as the gypsy and Jamie Lee Curtis as the transvestite would seem a must. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Ken Follett is the author of fourteen previous novels, and the nonfiction On the Wings of Eagles.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton; First Edition (December 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 451 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0525946284
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0525946281
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #698,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,126 in War Fiction (Books)
- #7,480 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

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4.5 14,618 ratings

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Ken Follett

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Ken Follett was only twenty-seven when he wrote the award-winning EYE OF THE NEEDLE, which became an international bestseller. His celebrated PILLARS OF THE EARTH was voted into the top 100 of Britain's best-loved books in the BBC's the Big Read and the sequel, WORLD WITHOUT END, was published to critical acclaim. He lives with his family in London and Hertfordshire.

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skfitzp

No men allowed, but...

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2023

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Fast paced. Brilliantly flourished characters, a good old world war two drama and insight into the SOE world of intrigue. This is a readers book.

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2023

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9/10s of this novel were very well written and enjoyable; only the ending was convoluted relying heavily on "ex machina" .....much too much. The plot idea, based loosely on fact, was interesting and engaging....tho again often finding refuge in spontaneous, semi-credible happenings. The characters were well forged.

One person found this helpful

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Audio1

worthy of a binge-read

Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024

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Full of intrigue and tension; a marvelous story of heroism and a bit of recklessness. This was a difficult story to put down.

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mrliteral

A World War II Story that is also Topical

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2002

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It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Allies won World War II or that D-Day - a pivotal event in the war - was executed successfully. Nonetheless, Ken Follett has written a novel that makes this event suspenseful even though the reader knows what the end result will be.
Returning to the era in which Follett's best books take place, Jackdaws follows female operative Felicity "Flick" Clairet and her efforts to destroy an important German communications center. She has a plan, and it requires a team of six women. What she assembles is a motley crew of semi-amateurs, but it is the best she can get.
What makes this novel especially stand out is her adversary, the German Major Dieter Franck. Franck is ruthless, but he is not evil and while a soldier and a German patriot, he is not fond of the Nazis. Instead, he is out to stop what he considers to be terrorists: the Resistance members who threaten his people.
Considering current events, Dieter's motivations have certain parallels to what many believe about terrorism nowadays. This adds an irony that probably goes beyond Follett even intended considering when this book must have been written and raises interesting questions about what terrorism is and what is appropriate in fighting it. Which is not to say that Dieter is a good guy, but it does kind of ironically invert some things that are happening nowadays.
What is most important, however, is that this is another great book by Follett, an entertaining page-turner that does not let up on the suspense. For a great WWII spy novel, Follett is hard to beat, and this book is another indication about why this is so.

4 people found this helpful

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Jo Kelly

incredible women

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2024

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Grand story highlighting the commitment of the Jackdaws, their courage and bravery under fire, and their ability to perform under incredible pressure

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A. B. Perchorowicz

Good Pre-D-Day Thriller....

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2011

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This was my second adventure with Follet and it proved to be a wonderful one. The story line follows that of the one about the "Dirty Dozen". Only here he makes several adjustments in tone, action, and characters. First, the goal is the same to disrupt or destroy a Nazi phone exchange terminal in France just prior to the allied invasion of France. A female resistance fighter makes an attempt at this with a team of resistance fighters and they fail because of poor intelligence about the facility. Some of the men are killed, some captured and later tortured, and a few escape including the ring leader who also happens to be the husband of the female agent. The female agent returns to London with a plan on how to do the job, but it is first turned down and then later approved.

The team to do the job is selected from a variety of people and they are all women except for one who is a male cross dresser. Interestingly enough the number on the team is six, or a "half-dozen". The team trains and fights among themselves based on their various backgrounds and characteristics. Finally, the big day comes and the night before the team is given a final test where one of them fails because she disclosed the mission to a stranger who is a member of the RAF and working to check the team's ability to not disclose the mission. This member is sent packing, but appears later with a high ranking officer because she is the daughter of a high government official and the female team leader is told she has to reinstate her. The team leader says, "No" and is backed up by others in MI6.

In the mean time the Gestapo has questioned and tortured the captured resistance fighters and has learned how other members are added to the group from England and where they make contact. The local contact is captured, tortured, and replaced by a person working with the Germans who later meets agents and then hands them over to the Nazis. One of the agents that is captured has a radio and the Nazis now have the codes and radio frequencies needed to contact England's inner circle of spies working in France. As you may guess the story continues with the Nazis learning of the attempt by the resistance to damage a vital supply line. The female agents are supposed to do the job, but the real target is the telepone exchange again. There's a lot of cat and mouse play between the team leader and the Nazis which is fun to read and the Nazis do catch a few of the team members, but the team leader continues to outwit the Nazi detective at a number of turns in the later part of the story as she and her remaining team prepare to destroy the telephone exchange building and equipment.

The ending is clever and action packed. Any reader of mystery and thriller books will really enjoy the last forty or so pages. The book is an easy read and at several points hard to put down. This is one you'll want to get and read.

14 people found this helpful

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SB Joe

Follett’s top of exiting novels!

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2024

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This was a page turner, could hardly put the book down. The closing pages were some of the most exciting🤠

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Jim Scott

Five stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2024

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Thoroughly enjoyed it. A great story. I've read a few of his books, and never been disappointed. If you're looking for a good wartime thriller, this is it

Kris

Toujours exceptionnel

Reviewed in France on January 26, 2024

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L’éloge de Ken Follett n’est plus à faire. Il mérite vraiment son titre de Best Seller. Jackdaws justifie, une fois de plus, cette réputation.

La lecture en est captivante, angoissante, inquiétante, oppressante, … les qualificatifs me manquent pour décrire tous les états par lesquels passe la lectrice un peu maso que je me suis découvert être afin de savoir comment toute cette aventure allait se terminer.

Je dois reconnaître que j’ai eu du mal avec les descriptions des horribles tortures infligées par les nazis.

Malgré cela, ce livre mérite vraiment d’être lu.

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Doris

Ein spannender Weltkriegsthriller

Reviewed in Germany on December 15, 2023

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Das Buch ist von der ersten bis zur letzten Zeile
spannend und lässt den Leser erahnen, wie schrecklich es war, in Frankreich unter deutscher Besatzung zu leben. In einer solchen Zeit braucht es immer den Mut einzelner, die für ihr Land und ihre Freiheit kämpfen wie in der Resistance. Mit Blick auf die Ukraine hat sich daran nichts geändert. Die Freiheit ist das höchste Gut und muss verteidigt werden.

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Marcos Luz

Great book, easy-going

Reviewed in Brazil on January 27, 2021

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Great and easy-going book. Another excellent work from Ken F. 10 out 10 recommend it to anyone. Congratulations. Keep up the good work.

Doug Gossen

Female spies get the job done

Reviewed in Canada on December 4, 2020

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This is a well written story of wartime espionage with the twist being that it involves a team of women. The main characters are well fleshed out and it has a satisfying ending.

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