Horizon

De: Helen MacInnes

Narrado por: Steven Crossley

British soldier Peter Lennox, a POW in an Italian prison camp, is still fighting his own war. An artist in civilian life, his hands bear the scars of wounds received during his capture at the fall of Tobruk, and he suspects he will never paint again. The only thing that sustains him is plotting his escapes, no matter how many times he is recaptured. But in September 1943 the Italians surrender to the Allies, and Lennox is free. Wanting nothing more than to return to the fighting, he is instead assigned to the mountains of the South Tyrol as a liaison to a desperate band of resistance fighters.

With little more than courage and knowledge of the local terrain, Lennox and his comrades must help pave the way for an Allied push that may change the course of the war.

©2013 Helen MacInnes (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

So glad to find this

I have loved Helen MacInnes' books for decades, and since becoming an Audible subscriber, had wondered why no one had yet created audiobook versions of her WWII thrillers. So I was delighted to discover the other day that Helen MacInnes audiobooks now exist! When I was younger I didn't know anything about MacInnes' background, but it was interesting to find out she was married to an Mi6 agent... Wikipedia also mentions that "MacInnes's second novel, Assignment in Brittany (1942), was made required reading for Allied intelligence agents who were being sent to work with the French resistance against the Nazis. It was featured on the New York Times first fiction bestseller list, in 1942. Her 1944 book, The Unconquerable, gives such an accurate portrayal of the Polish resistance that some reviewers and readers thought she was using classified information given to her by her husband"! MacInnes and her husband had traveled extensively in the areas of Europe she wrote about most, and even before she became a writer, she was taking careful notes about the political situations in the countries she visited. No wonder the books feel so well researched. Macinnes' careful details and satisfying descriptions of places are a wonderful part of all her books; and this novel also contains quite a bit of character study and insight into the emotional life of the main character. Watching him grapple with the frustrations of injury and of prolonged inaction was not always pleasant, but the way the story was told really helped me feel his struggles and understand what he was going through. I'm so glad to have had the chance to listen to this novel!

Remembering the era when this booke was written

I enjoyed the read. This was one of the first books I had read by Helen MacInnes. It was written at the time close to the events that probably would have taken place.

Solid

Like all of MacInnesʻ books, I appreciate it because these were the times that she lived in. To us today these novels read as historical fiction, but to her this was the reality of her times. And so they have much more impact to me. She’s an excellent writer, much better than most of the novelists today. She paints a picture that truly comes alive in my mind. She’s much underrated. This may not be her finest work, but it’s a good solid piece of writing and like all hers her characters are finally drawn with depth and reality.