Book Log 2010 #34: Hornet Flight by Ken Follett

While I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, I do have one rule about choosing books based on cover art: the larger the swastika on the cover, the worse the book (fiction only). The copy of the book that I read had a small swastika on it, so i thought it worth the risk.

And, truth be told, the rule worked. The book is an entertaining story of a Danish teen who has to get information on a local radar station to England, and his only means of doing so is by flying an old plane that's been stored in an out-building for years.

Of course there's more detail to the story, such as how the boy winds up having to fly and who he has to choose as co-pilot. The story moves at an appropriately brisk pace, and the setting of occupied Denmark is a nice change from World War II novels set in the typical locations. It is based on actual people and events, which I imagine helped with developing the unique locale and personalities.

My only complaint about the book is the ending, specifically the epilogue which feels tacked on to set up a sequel that, to date, hasn't come to pass. Still, for a book I picked up to read on vacation I could have done much worse.