The Brass Compass

By: Ellen Butler

Narrated by: Justine Eyre

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

A beautiful American spy flees into the night. On her own, she must live by her wits to evade capture and make it to the safety of the Allied forces.

Lily Saint James grew up traveling the European continent, learning languages as she went. In 1938, her mother's abrupt death brings her back home to Washington, DC, and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Lily comes to the attention of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Her knowledge of German, French, and Italian makes her the perfect OSS Agent, and her quick thinking places her as a nanny in the household of an important German Army Colonel, where she is able to gather intelligence for the Allies.

After her marketplace contact goes missing, she makes a late-night trip to her secondary contact only to find him under interrogation by the SS. When he commits suicide, she flees into the frigid winter night carrying false identification papers that are now dangerous and a mini film cartridge with vital strategic information. In order to survive, Lily must make it out of Germany, into the hands of Allied-controlled France, through a path fraught with peril.

©2017 Ellen Butler (P)2018 Tantor

Awesome book all the way to the end.

I started this book with trepidation because it didn't have many reviews. I'm sure glad I did. I couldn't stop listening. The suspense just kept coming. I loved it and I bet you will to.

Very intriguing tale based on teal characters

Excellent story that never flags or stalls. It is consistently engaging and in motion.
Captivating story.

Enthralling

This is my first book by Ellen Butler. The story was exciting so I definitely will read more of her books. Our protagonist is Lily St. James. She went to school in Switzerland and England. She had travelled throughout Europe prior to World War II. She is recruited by the Civilian OSS and sent to Germany as a spy. Lily was recruited because she speaks German, French, English and can easily learn a language. Her resistance links are compromised. She is on her own and on the run from the SS.

The book is well written. The plot twists and turns. There is action and lots of suspense as Lily goes from one risky situation to the next. Butler had me hooked from the first paragraph. The book makes a great get-away-from-it all.

The book is nine hours and forty-four minutes. Justine Eyre does a great job narrating the book. Eyre is a Canadian actress and is multilingual. Eyre has won three Audiofile Earphone Awards and has won the Audie Award.

Likeable protaganist

A lot of good innocent people died in the battle to over the nazis

Interesting story historical fiction is my favorite genre and this did not disappoint

I couldn't deide if this was a YA book.

If it is YA, I'd rate it higher. If it is for adults, it's just OK.

Great story!

This is among my favorite stories about WW2 women in the resistance. This one includes a love story as well.

A Diary of Sorts

I listened to this book in the hopes of it being a WWII thriller of sorts. What it really is, for the most part, is someone telling a story. Yes, there is some dialogue between characters...but not nearly enough to save the book from being a sort of diary. Not what I thought it was going to be. Just a little lacking.

Not very realistic

I found this story to be a bit hokey. The main character was very self centered and the things that happened very improbable.
The ending was especially the worst. No way could this have happened so why say in the epilogue that it was based on true stories.
I would skip this one

Another wonderful peek into how heroes of WW2

Another wonderful peek into how heroes of WW2 to whom we owe our freedom.

5 Stars

Loved this historical fiction of WWII. I really appreciated the author explaining the 3 brave women & their wartime experiences that the main character was based on. It was hard to put down!

I was shocked by how bad this is

The narrator has won awards and high praise. Maybe she's done excellent work elsewhere. In The Brass Compass she had an irritating habit of emphasising the ends of some of her words, and this carried over from the heroine's voice to some of the other characters. It was very distracting. Some of the accents she did well, but not enough. As for the story, the heroine carefully explained her thinking, before answering anyone. Usually there was a short lecture on a war topic. I read a lot of WWII fiction, but avoid romanticised novels. This one preached a lot about the war, what was awful about it, what happened etc. If you read war fiction, you of course expect some explanations, but this was over the top, and made dull reading out of something horrific and tragic. And it also romanticised the war. True horror and suffering was barely touched. The ending was predictable and, in fact, I don't feel I've been told a story, just rambling memories of events. Very disappointing. I'm glad to be able to move on to something meatier.

Thoroughly enjoyable

I really enjoyed this audiobook. Having recently listened to "Code Name, Lise", I read the details of his book and thought it would be similar. Iit is, and just as enjoyable. It's gripping from start to finish. A definate 5 stars from me.