Jackdaws

By: Ken Follett

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's Summary

Jackdaws by Ken Follett is an irresistible novel of the French Resistance, love, courage and revenge set in the Second World War, read by Emilia Fox, who expertly brings the story to life.

A Failed Mission

Two weeks before D-Day, the French Resistance try to destroy a telephone exchange vital to Nazi communications. Heavily defended, the mission fails disastrously.

A Daring Plan

With invasion looming, Flick Clairet, a British secret agent, proposes a daring but perilous new plan. She, along with an all-female team – the Jackdaws – will infiltrate and neutralize the exchange before Allied Forces land in France.

A Race Against Time

However, unbeknownst to Flick, Rommel has assigned a brilliant spy-catcher – Dieter Franck – to crush the French Resistance. And now Franck is closing in . . .

©2018 Ken Follett (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio

Great book

Loved this audible book. I couldn't stop listening. Five stars deservedly. Hope others will enjoy it as much.

A huge disappointment

I came to this after thoroughly enjoying Audible's recording of The Eye of the Needle, performed superbly by Samuel West. The drop in quality, both of Follett's writing and especially of the performance (here by Emilia Fox) is startling.

The story is set at exactly the same time as the Eye of the Needle - in the weeks running up to D-Day in 1944. Jackdaws has none of the tension and craft of the older book. Despite being a much less far-fetched idea it's a lot less plausible, mainly because of the Jackdaws themselves: a set of unlikely caricatures. It also seems to be written for a dopey audience; countless times we get plodding explanations of what a character is thinking when it's blindingly obvious from the context...'he was disappointed that she had escaped again, but still hoped to capture her later.' Well...duh.

There are similarities with The Eye of the Needle: the father-figure spymaster is called Percy again, there is an unnecessary warm n' fuzzy post-script to wrap up some characters' lives and there is a lot of very explicit sex. Follett just manages to make it erotic in TEotN but in Jackdaws it leaves you feeling like you need a good wash, and adds to the implausibility.

But the worst thing by far is the performance. Emilia Fox is a successful and accomplished actor but she's a disastrous choice for this job...she chooses to perform all the non-English characters in their respective accents, i.e. German and French. She lays these on with a trowel and the effect is amateurish and grating. Imagine a 17-hour episode of 'Allo Allo' without any funny moments and you'll have a good idea what it's like.

I've bought something like 120 titles on Audible and most of them have been fantastic. I've never given something such a bad review and I hope I never do again. I can't believe Jackdaws is so highly rated by most others so maybe it's just me...or maybe superstar thriller writers like Follett, Le Carré, Deighton, Forsyth et al can get away with a bad book every now and then with no apparent dip in ratings.

Gripping listen

I am not sure how one enjoys a book that at times is quite brutal, but this book greatly exceeded my expectations and I found it quite gripping. I loved the way the author switched between telling the story from different angles, so that the same scene could be reflected from opposing sides. Extremely well read by Emilia Fox.

Captivating

With perfect narration by Emilia Fox and Ken Folletts amazing ability to create engaging characters to share history with such clarity. Loved every minute of it.

Excellent

A must listen for any lover of WW2 drama. Very well written and incredibly well read.

Outstanding listen

Being a father and Having 3 daughters mysrlf having an interest in the SAS and SOE historic records during WW II .

the story of a highly motivated intelligent and courageous woman that can be as ruthless and determined as any man at that time when homosexuality and the recognition of such and there part in the war was brushed under the carpet .. by pompous men the same men that tried to disband the SAS after the war

Thankful it’s change not sure by how much but books like this one I want my girls to read instead of other girl gibberish that can be pushed on them

Well written and narrated real edge of your seat stuff

Well done !

A very enthralling listen

The story is so good that I found it difficult to put down, indeed at the end I was up until 2:40 am!
I like Emília Fox as an actress and her reading is superb. Her gentle cultured voice delivering some very gruesome and upsetting scenes made them all the more chilling.
Highly recommended

Very poor

Clumsy , clunky writing, shockingly bad editing, terrible, cliche-ridden characterisations, laughable, unnecessary expositions in respect of obvious, telegraphed plot developments, utterly cringeworthy attempts at romance and sex, topped off by “allo-allo” comic accents and a vocal style which served to distract and irritate.
Apart from that, it was ok...
A basically interesting premise utterly spoiled by the above.
I’d hesitate before considering any of The author’s other works, or any other narrations by Ms Fox.
Oddly, I have in the past read one of his books, set in wartime Denmark, and I don’t recall it being this terrible.

Loved every minute

This is the second Ken Follett audiobook i've listened to,the first one being Eye Of The Needle,which was read by Samuel West,this story which was read by Emilia Fox which was a thoroughly enjoyable story from my perspective,she really brought the story to life,although some of the character's were somewhat stereotypical of French and German character's it was a great listen,I'd throughly recommend this audiobook to those that like spy stories or WWII stories....

Love this author!

Ken Follett’s books work well in audio form. This is the third one I’ve listened to and it was just as good as the others. Great performance also!

Not at all one of Ken Folletts best books

I normally love Ken Folletts books, this is clearly not one of them. started well, but went down hill as the book unfolded. didn't enjoy the narration which didn't help.