Assignment in Brittany
Mar. 25th, 2026 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliAssignment in Brittany by Helen MacInnes
A thriller about an British undercover agent in Brittany, in 1940. The work was published in 1942.
Hearne, a Cornish man in intelligence, goes to infiltrate Brittany in the guise of a Breton soldier evacuated from and injured at Dunkirk. He manages to make it to the farm, where the mother and family servant live, and soon learns there was a lot that the man did not tell him as he tries do intelligence work and aid men who could provide intelligence in their escape.
The man's fiancee tells him that her father died, and so there's no way they will marry; a woman he did not mention appears as if she knows him well, and is mentioned in the diary he finds; the mother lies and tells the Germans he is her son; discussions of the planned attack on Britain; and much more.
The ending bugs me a little with a twist that wasn't quite cleared up.
A thriller about an British undercover agent in Brittany, in 1940. The work was published in 1942.
Hearne, a Cornish man in intelligence, goes to infiltrate Brittany in the guise of a Breton soldier evacuated from and injured at Dunkirk. He manages to make it to the farm, where the mother and family servant live, and soon learns there was a lot that the man did not tell him as he tries do intelligence work and aid men who could provide intelligence in their escape.
The man's fiancee tells him that her father died, and so there's no way they will marry; a woman he did not mention appears as if she knows him well, and is mentioned in the diary he finds; the mother lies and tells the Germans he is her son; discussions of the planned attack on Britain; and much more.
The ending bugs me a little with a twist that wasn't quite cleared up.