Title: The Ghosts of RomeAuthor: Joseph O'Connor
Series: Rome Escape Line Trilogy #2
Published by: Europa Editions on Feb. 14, 2025
Genres: Historical Fiction
Pages: 400
Format: ARC, Paperback
Source: Publishers Group Canada
Book Rating: 9/10
In the final months of World War II, a clandestine group known as The Choir smuggles thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Rome Escape Line. When an unidentified airman falls from the sky, The Choir is plunged into lethal danger and the survival of the Escape Line itself is threatened.
The Choir is riven with internal tensions and infighting. The organization is in danger of falling apart, which would leave thousands of escaped allied soldiers, POWs, Jews, and objectors stranded in a Rome that is ruled with vicious efficiency by the Nazis. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the architect of the Escape Line and acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, seemingly paralyzed by what he sees as the intolerable risks of keeping the Escape Line in operation.
One man has been given the task of definitively destroying the entire operation and the price of his failure is high—SS Commander Paul Hauptmann’s wife and children are under Gestapo supervision in Berlin. Hauptmann is ordered to stay on in the city he both loathes and loves and to dismantle the Escape Line, or watch his family perish. Into this deliriously thrilling melee steps the Contessa Giovanna Landini, a reckless, audacious, and magnetic member of the Italian Resistance who has the nerve to challenge Hauptmann’s authority.
A beautifully written and expertly crafted historical suspense novel that is bursting with action, atmosphere, and unforgettable characters, The Ghosts of Rome is the thrilling follow-up to Joseph O’Connor’s best-selling My Father’s House.
Review:
Charged, emotional, and action-packed!
The Ghosts of Rome is a fascinating, enticing tale that picks up right where My Father’s House left off, taking us back to Vatican City during WWII and into the lives of a handful of individuals known as “The Choir” who now find themselves doing whatever they can to help a shot down, wounded allied airman evade capture while also getting him the life-saving surgery he desperately needs.
The prose is smooth and expressive. The characters are selfless, reliable, and resourceful. And the plot unravels and intertwines briskly into a sweeping saga of life, loss, bravery, strength, loyalty, espionage, grit, determination, deception, secrets, and survival.
Overall, The Ghosts of Rome is an intricate, suspenseful, captivating tale by O’Connor based on real-life events that does a wonderful job of interweaving historical facts and compelling fiction into a thrilling, heart-tugging tale that is atmospheric and highly absorbing.
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Joseph O'Connor
Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He is the author of the novels Cowboys and Indians (short-listed for the Whitbread Prize), Desperadoes , The Salesman , Inishowen , Star of the Sea and Redemption Falls , as well as a number of bestselling works of non-fiction.
He was recently voted ‘Irish Writer of the Decade’ by the readers of Hot Press magazine. He broadcasts a popular weekly radio diary on RTE’s Drivetime With Mary Wilson and writes regularly for The Guardian Review and The Sunday Independent. In 2009 he was the Harman Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Baruch College, the City University of New York.
Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.
