An Officer and a Spy

This was an enjoyable historical spy novel about the Dreyfus affair in France at the end of the 19th century, told from the perspective of Georges Piquart, an army Major promoted to the head of the Army's intelligence unit. He discovers evidence that Dreyfus has been wrongly convicted of treason and spends the rest of the book battling to get that evidence accepted, at the cost of great personal hardship. At times his quest appears to be impossible, especially because the public is violently against anyone who dares to suggest that Dreyfus is innocent. However, glimmers of hope appear over and over again.

The book seems well researched. Occasionally the narrative drags a little, but the story is so interesting that that didn't deter me from finishing.

Outstanding historical fiction

This is the first book I've read by Harris and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story of Dreyfus has always intrigued me and I was eager to read this historical fiction retelling. It is hard and yet sadly easy to imagine this gross miscarriage of justice taking place as a government scrambles to find a scapegoat and a rallying point. The book was compelling, it kept my interest, it made me angry on Dreyfus' and his supporters' behalf even though I knew that they would be exonerated in the end. I highly recommend checking e cling this book out! And I will be look I my into Harris's backlist!