An excellent novel, closely based on historical events in the Vatican and Rome during World War 2. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in history, good writing - in fact, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a good book.

All the characters are well written, and accurately portrayed, the times and places are so well described one feels as if they are they. And, even when notorious events - the Ardeatine Massacre, and other reprisals - take place one feels the immediate shock experienced at the time.

With thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Digital for an ARC.

"The dead don't bother me none. It's the living you got to be scared"
This is one of many great quotes that I've loved in this book. Joseph O'Connor, in his beautiful style, brings us again to occupied Europe where people fight with Nazis and are constantly looking for new ways to help and protect innocent people amongst them.
"The ghosts of Rome" is second in the trilogy and as it's precursor it's amazingly well written. History and fiction are blending seamlessly but what stood out to me most was how much time the author must have spent on research. In this book, I feel, we have an amazing insight on how impressive women were during those years. Thankfully the enemy underestimated them.
Massive thanks to NetGalley for the early copy although I'm afraid that no words will ever be beautiful enough to give this book a justice. It's a treasure that has to be devoured slowly
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BOOK BLURB :

February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome.

Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as ‘The Choir’. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann.

During a ferocious morning air raid a mysterious parachutist lands in Rome and disappears into the backstreets. Is he an ally or an imposter? His fate will come to put the whole Escape Line at risk.

Meanwhile, Hauptmann’s attention has landed on the Contessa. As his fascination grows, she is pulled into a dangerous game with him – one where the consequences could be lethal

4* The Ghosts of Rome (Rome Escape Line #2) by Joseph Connor. The 2nd book in this superb trilogy with a fictional telling of those who, hunkered in the Vatican, supported allied soldiers and airmen to shelter and escape Rome in the latter years of WWII, as the allies made their way North.

In the preceding book, My Father's House, we met Fr Hugh O'Flaherty a Catholic priest who had found his calling in The Choir, a group who assembled by happenchance to create an 'escape line'. In The Ghost's of Rome, the focus shifts to the rest of the group and in particular Countess Jo Landini who has had to flee the palace which was the ancestral home of her late husband. The Choir continue their work despite the ever closing net of the Nazis led by Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann. When a Polish airman is shot down, saving his life becomes one of the trickiest missions the group will undertake.

This is a superb book, entwining true characters with fictionalised missions and back stories. It was very special to be back with this group of characters as they become increasingly daring in a bid to thwart Hauptmann, who is himself under great pressure from Berlin. The plot zips along and there were half a dozen times I was entranced and had to keep reading to see if they could get themselves out of danger. It would work well as a standalone, not least because we are introduced to each character in turn, but reading My Father's House will give the reader more depth and understanding of what has gone before.

Thanks to Random House, Harvill Secker and Netgalley for an ARC.

This is the long anticipated and wonderful sequel to "my Father's House" and continues the saga of the Escape Line and the Choir as they continue to arrange the escape of allied soldiers and airmen in occupied Rome under the noses of the Nazis and their increasingly frustrated and pressurised Gestapo commander Paul Hauptmann.

The tension builds as the Germans close in on the myriad hiding places throughout the city and the members the choir pull in different directions under the intolerable pressure they face.

The writing is lyrical, the characters intelligently and beautifully drawn and Rome itself and the Vatican are indelibly described.

This is a book to savour and you will shed tears at the end too.