In 1940, General Charles DeGaulle sent a letter to his fellow Frenchmen urging them to resist the Nazis. And so began the famous French Resistance with its many unsung heroes. In the United States in 1944, teenage Joe and Raymond watch as the owner of the local Always Inn and Tavern is arrested as a Nazi spy with crates of ammunition found in his basement. Raymond is a prankster at school but Joe has a genius and has built a radio that blocked out the local radio station for hours. Now seventeen years of age, Joe is recruited to be a radio operator for a secret upcoming covert operation history now known as D-Day. He is flown to Scotland and then secreted into France by a Resistance hero known as Henri. He is coached to speak in perfect French, not the French Canadian spoken by his mother, and is taken to the basement of Henri’s farmhouse where behind an old wine cellar lies a radio center for Allied communications. What lies ahead for Joe?
“Code Name Sonny” is a brilliantly written story of World War II and the valor of people in the French Resistance like Henri and young American men like Joe who grow into manhood overnight as they witness atrocities against innocent people. It is also a tale of modern day revenge carried out against deeds done long ago. Joe, or “Sonny” as his mother calls him, Joe’s wife Claire, his son Jack and Jack’s wife Emily, Henri, Marie and others from the time of World War II are totally believable. The suspense is first-rate as the plot unfolds to the story’s end and will have the readers on the edge of their seats. “Code Name Sonny” should be on everyone’s reading list as it is a remarkable, memorable book that will stay in people’s minds for a long,long time.
Alice DiNizo for Readers’ Favorite
