The Paris Agent

I really enjoyed The Paris Agent. It's set during WWII and tells the story of women who worked as secret agents in France. I was captivated by the mix of bravery, danger, and the personal sacrifices they made. It made me reflect on how ordinary people faced extraordinary challenges and risked so much for a greater cause.

The story has mystery and some great twists, but what stayed with me most were the emotions and the choices the characters faced. It wasn't a light read, but it was powerful and definitely one that kept me turning the pages. Perfect if you like historical fiction with strong female characters.

From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say and The Warsaw Orphan, Kelly Rimmer-for fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Tattooist of Auschwitz!

A "MOST ANTICIPATED TITLE" by - Harper's Bazaar - B&N Reads - BookBub - Goodreads - Fresh Fiction

"The author's research has captured the tension that those who lived through that time experienced at deep levels. Kelly Rimmer's scenes in both eras are fraught with anxiety, urging the reader to keep turning the page, anxious to learn about each character's experiences, right up to the very end." - New York Journal of Books

For fans of fast-paced historical thrillers like Our Woman in Moscow and The Rose Code, Kelly Rimmer's dramatic new novel follows two female SOE operatives whose lives will be determined by a double agent in their midst.

Twenty-five years after the end of the war, Noah Ainsworth is still preoccupied with those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in France. A head injury sustained on his final operation has caused frustrating gaps in his memory-in particular about the agent who saved his life during that mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she even survived the war.

Moved by her father's frustration, Noah's daughter Charlotte begins a search for answers that resurrects the stories of Chloe and Fleur, the code names for two otherwise ordinary women whose lives intersect in 1943 when they're called up by the SOE for deployment in France. Taking enormous risks to support the allied troops with very little information or resources, the women have no idea they're at the mercy of a double agent among them who's causing chaos within the French circuits, whose efforts will affect the outcome of their lives...and the war.

But as Charlotte's search for answers bears fruit, overlooked clues come to light about the identity of the double agent-with unsettling hints pointing close to home-and more shocking events are unearthed from the dangerous, dramatic last days of the war that lead to Chloe and Fleur's eventual fates.

From the publisher

Harper Collins/Graydon House | Jul 11, 2023 | 352 pages | ISBN:9781525805080 | Historical fiction

1. Were you aware of the Special Operations Executive before you read this book?

2. SOE agents were often recruited as civilians and sent into occupied territory with only a few months' immersive training. Do you think you could be trained to survive and succeed under such conditions, in such a short space of time? What do you think you might do if you were approached for such a role at a time when the world was in such chaos?

3. Josie is a young woman with a chronic illness, managing her health at a time when that illness was poorly understood. Had you ever considered what life might have been like for the chronically ill during wartime?

4. Eloise makes the choice to leave her young son behind, first in the care of her mother, but later in the care of strangers. She's motivated by a desire for revenge and later, by a desire to do what she could to ensure her son grew up in a world at peace. Did she make the right choice to leave Hughie?

5. Geraldine hid Professor Read's attempts to contact Noah for decades. What was her ultimate motivation for this? Do you agree with Charlotte that had she survived, Geraldine would eventually have made peace with Noah's need to better understand his own past?

6. Josie has a fraught relationship with Drusilla. What was at the heart of that tension? Did it seem a realistic dynamic to you?

7. Gerard makes terrible decisions throughout the war but perceives himself to be helplessly trapped. Even so, he does try to help Josie once she is arrested. Did you feel sympathy for him at all?

8. Which characters in this book did you like best? Which did you like least? Why?

9. Which scene in The Paris Agent affected you the most, and why? What emotions did that scene elicit?

10. Were you satisfied with the ending? What do you think happened next for Noah, and for Charlotte and Theo?

11. Was there an aspect of the history in this novel that surprised you?

12. What will you remember most about The Paris Agent?

13. Who would you recommend this book to?

14. Was this your first Kelly Rimmer book? If you've read any of her other titles, which did you prefer?

Book Club Talking Points:
The Paris Agent is a great book club pick because it's a memorable story about women spies in WWII. Their bravery and sacrifices are both inspiring and touching. There are plenty of twists and secrets, but what is great is how it makes you think about the choices people had to make in impossible times-which is precisely the kind of thing that gets everyone talking in a book club.

"A fast-paced tale of heroes, double agents and mystery." -Michelle Gable, New York Times bestselling author of The Lipstick Bureau on The Paris Agent

"Skillfully researched and powerfully written, The German Wife will capture you from the first page. Kelly Rimmer always delivers a poignant story-this book is no exception." -Madeline Martin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London

"The German Wife is a heart-wrenching, uplifting story about love and family and the choices people make in impossible situations. An unforgettable historical novel that explores important questions highly relevant to the world today." -Christine Wells, author of Sisters of the Resistance

"Once again, Kelly Rimmer has turned my emotions upside down. With every book of hers I read, I become a more thoughtful and empathetic person, but The German Wife is, without a doubt, the jewel in her crown." -Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Younger Wife

"The German Wife moves beyond the better-known stories to uncover the hidden horrors of the Second World War and what it was like for the women-and the men they loved-during that time. A must-read." -Jane Cockram, author of The Way from Here

"Rimmer's heart-stopping rendering of the war in Nazi-occupied Poland will captivate readers page-by-page. Elzbieta's tale offers a carefully researched portrayal of history's darkest hours." -Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours on The Warsaw Orphan

"What a fantastic book! Intensely moving, The Warsaw Orphan is also a wonderful, ultimately life-affirming love story. I'm going to be recommending this book to everyone I know." -Karen Robards, New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan of Paris

"Fans of The Nightingale and Lilac Girls will adore The Things We Cannot Say." -Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris

"If you only have time to read one book this year, The Things We Cannot Say should be that book." -Fresh Fiction

"The author's research has captured the tension that those who lived through that time experienced at deep levels. Kelly Rimmer's scenes in both eras are fraught, urging the reader to keep turning the page, anxious to learn about each character's experiences, right up to the very end."- New York Journal of Books

"[The Paris Agent] is another great Kelly Rimmer novel, no one writes them better than her. It's filled with well-written characters, interesting stories, and shocking twists and turns. You will not want to put this one down. A perfect summer beach read."-Red Carpet Crash