White Rose, Black Forest is a novel by Eoin Dempsey which was published by Lake Union Publishing on 1st March 2018. The genre of the book is Historical Fiction.
The story is narrated from different points of view, but mainly from Franka Gerber’s point of view. Franka Gerber is a nurse who works in Munich. The Gestapo had already taken control there, and Franka’s brother and father were killed by Nazi extremists. She had developed hatred against the Nazi regiment, and she even joins the resistance movement started by the White Rose society. Her boyfriend also gets killed by Nazi extremists when the White Rose Society got busted. Then one day when she is in her family home in the Black Forest, she found a body a few yards away from her home of an airman in Luftwaffe uniform, she couldn’t leave him there as she’s a nurse and treating the injured is her prime duty.
The airman she found in the snow is a spy, and his name is Werner Graf, he is on a secret mission to Germany. When he woke up, he doesn’t know whether to trust her or not? On the other hand, she also can not decide to believe him or not. It is a difficult time, trust is a rare thing. Also, Franka is afraid of the Gestapo, if they find out that she is hiding a possible enemy, she would be executed. Will they be able to trust each other and work together?
The story is well-paced and well written. It is a page-turner, and I completed it in 3-4 sittings. The description is vivid, and one could easily create a mental picture. Although the genre is given as historical fiction, it felt like a thriller to me. It’s like it’s a combination of historical fiction and thriller, which is excellent.
The only thing that I disliked was that the story could have ended well. The whole story was perfect, but somehow the author finished it very casually. It could have been better. Overall, a great read. I would rate it a 7 out of 10.