The story is that of the rescue and recovery of downed US airmen in the Second World War from former Yugoslavia. The main characters in this story are really easy to like from the get go, you read from three points of view with main characters in different positions in the story. The way each has a role to play in getting these airmen back home but being so different really gets the reader involved in feeling the whole scale of this operation.

I really enjoyed this book and having traveled around the balkans this year, was able to picture the scenes and problems the Chetniks and Americans faced in succeeding in this mission. A great read and would certainly recommend!

A well-written and researched war time story of an air rescue from the countries of former Yugoslavia, based upon real events. The story is told from two points of view - Bogdonavich, of Serbian ancestry, but American and shot down in enemy territory. Rescued by the "good guys", as opposed to Partisans or Germans, he helps as much as he can whilst hoping for rescue. The second main character is Carlton, also American, a pilot who hopes to redeem his earlier failures by volunteering for a rescue mission of epic proportions. There is a good range of characters - from the exceedingly brave Serbians, Carlton's Team, to the locals endangering their lives on a daily basis - and you can feel the angst, doubt as well as patriotism and frustration of those characters.. The Germans were not noted for tolerance or kindness in the path of obstruction and there is loss aplenty throughout the story. The descriptions of the countryside and the feel of danger everywhere make this an intense read. My only, and minor, niggle has to be the, at times, very long descriptions of which knobs/handles needing twiddling/turning in order to get the planes off the ground, and back, safely - but it was very easy to speed read through these without detracting from the main story. Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.