Mission of Mercy

This book was a miss for me. The leading lady was a strong feminist who had a personal policy “never to treat patients who have an objection to [her] sex.” This personal agenda seemed out of place for a Resistance worker, whose job was to patch up other Resistance members so they could keep doing their part to win World War II. She also didn't seem to understand how the Resistance she was a part of worked. She freely admitted that it was her job to “keep them alive. Your job is to coordinate all the other needful things.” One of the needful things was for one of her patients to get back to his post quickly, but she got overly bossy and started trying to run the show herself, delaying his return – which of course caused some issues – instead of being a cog in the works, like she was supposed to be. I couldn't really root for her with the feminist, controlling attitude she had.

There were a few inconsistencies, but the most glaring was that Matthew prayed aloud in Hebrew and then wondered only four paragraphs later how his companion could tell he was Hebrew.

Like all the other books in this series so far, the leads broke the team's number one rule about not sharing personal details with each other. I'm starting to wonder why that was even a rule. It doesn't seem like breaking it causes any problems for any of the team members.

I liked the spy angle and was happy to see that the leading lady's cover was as a Red Cross nurse. There was a real-life Red Cross nurse named Patrocinio Gamboa, who was an intelligence agent for the Philippines, so I was excited to see this shown in a fictional book, even if it wasn't a story about Miss Gamboa herself. What ended up being disappointing about this aspect of the story was that in the author's note, the author claimed that “it is unlikely that Betty's disguise as a Red Cross nurse would allow her to carry out a mission of espionage.” I found Miss Gamboa's story in under five seconds on Google. With her experience as a spy who was also a Red Cross nurse, it seems it was altogether possible to “carry out a mission of espionage” under such a cover – because it really happened in Miss Gamboa's life. I would have liked to see this part of history reflected in the author's note as well as in the book rather than the author claiming “artistic license” about something that actually happened in real life.

Content: replacement expletives, pubs, mention of “inflated latex condoms,” tobacco