Ken Follett has made his mark as one of the most assured thriller writers in the business, and although his form has faltered of late, Jackdaws shows that he's lost none of his steely skill. The time is May 1944, and Follett takes us into the provincial French town of Sainte-Cecile, suffering under the Nazi yoke for several years as the novel begins. Follett's heroine is the resourceful "Flick", whose real name is Felicity Clairet. She is English, and honoured throughout the town as the wife of Michel, who heads the Resistance circuit based in Rheims. During the day, Flick performs first aid for the townspeople; by night she risks her life alongside her husband in the Resistance. Flick has to persuade herself that she is ready for her most important mission: to inaugurate a fighting team for an attack on a château used as a key Gestapo base--her team (all women, with one exception) are the eponymous "jackdaws". This fresh concept is carried off with the kind of effortless skill that was the distinguishing feature of Follett's best books, and his protagonist Flick is a distinctive, unusual creation. --Barry Forshaw