The second book in the series featuring the same heroine, I found it light and entertaining. A nice, quick cozy read. The characters can use a little more detailing but the settings are good and the time period/locations are interesting. I plan on sticking with the series. I recommend this book to lovers of cozy Mysteries.

*thank you to the author/publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review*

3 stars
A short story featuring Xanthe Schneider, a news reporter who was undercover US operative in WWII Berlin. Xanthe has just given birth and is trying to find her path ahead between being a career woman, a mother and someone who has been involved with the war effort. Leading up to the birth of her son, she has been keeping herself busy in providing insight and support on the Engima machine at Bletchley Park. Shortly after giving birth, British intelligence asks her to deploy to Greece to work the Engima machine to funnel a message that can flush out critical information on locations of the German naval ships.
Interesting read. The author’s detail on the history that sets up the story is great. I learned a lot and would go out to Wikepedia to search on the historical aspects. But the short story formula didn’t allow for the development of the characters.
Thank you NetGalley and publisher, Endeavour Press, for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The Athens Assignment David Boyle

I don't usually do this, but I have held back on this review until I'd read the first book in the series, The Berlin Affair.

Why? Because from the start of The Athens Assignment I felt like I had started reading a really good story half way through. Both books together are just 240 pages, the length of a good book.

The Athens Affair is the story of Xanthe Schneider, a journalist for an American magazine, working in London in the early 1940's at the height of the Blitz.

Xanthe is also a part time code breaker at Bletchley Park, and occasional agent working in occupied Europe.

The story is very much of the type I used to read as a young lad in the Commando Books or Warlord Comics, except these stories are written in an adult manner.

The Athens Assignment sees Xanthe returning to Europe, this time to Greece, in an attempt to help the British Forces locate and destroy the German battleship The Bismarck.

David Boyle makes a great job of taking actual events and weaving a fictional plot around them.

The invasions of Greece by the Germans, the threat posed by the huge battleship Bismarck, the frantic attempts by the British Forces to find and destroy it before it wreaks havoc on the North Atlantic convoys.

He uses names that all readers will recognise to give the story even more credence, with Alan Turing and Ian Fleming making appearances.

This book, or should I say both books, took me right back to the first thing that got me hooked on reading. Second World War fiction woven around actual events.

I started by saying I felt like I had come in half way through a story.

Well, I'll end by saying I hope I finished the book at least two thirds of the way through a bigger one.

Pages: 119
Publishers: Endeavour
Available on Amazon