Author: Joy Chambers
ISBN: 9780755352654
RRP: $29.99
Joy Chambers has written a novel that will surprise and shock, containing a relatively strong element of intrigue and more than a touch of romance.
All of the events in the novel link back to World War II so even though the narrative opens in Australia in 1947, after the end of the war, it isn’t long before we are transported to wartime Holland.
I am still a little ambivalent about this book, I can’t quite make up my mind. Part of this, a large part of this, is due to it being so heavily centred on WWII and the actions of the Nazis. The book has some stellar selling points but there were also aspects that left me less than impressed.
The chapters are extremely short which is something I really enjoyed. I tend to read in any slot of time I can find and I hate stopping mid-chapter so this was great for that.
We begin in NSW in 1947 with Shelly and Cole Wareing, newly married and far away from everyone they know. They don’t speak much of Cole’s time in the war but we slowly learn the things that Shelly knows, which isn’t much.
The first 130 pages are set in 1947, but not far in the narrative splits off to follow each of the main characters. The Peace time chapters follow three different characters in turn so the fact that the entire tale is narrated makes it much simpler to follow than if there were also multiple points of view.
These chapters raise many questions that can only be answered with a trip to the past, which is how we are returned to 1943. These chapters are concerned less with following all of our characters than with focusing on the character who raises the most questions. There are also brief snapshots of the other characters to share relevant information.
The wartime section was very drawn out and gave a vivid view of goings on in occupied countries, so though our original characters are Australian much of the narrative is set in the war-torn European regions. We read much about the Nazi treatment of the Dutch and the Jews, visiting prison camps with our characters and seeing the way the SS controlled the populace.
I appreciate that there were many questions to be answered in the wartime section but I believe it could have been done more succinctly. Even as these chapters unraveled more questions were raised but all of them were answered quite satisfactorily.
Once the questions were answered it was a quick cut back to post war 1947 to pick up where we left for the journey to the past. It glossed over the ensuing 2 years without telling us much about how they got from where we left them to 1947. Yes, I said not long ago that the war section could have been more succinct and now I’m wishing for elaboration but it isn’t the contradiction it seems.
Once back in 1947 all the loose ends are neatly tied up and some questions are answered that were never consciously asked.
The characters were complex which I think is necessary in a tale of this type. I don’t see how you can have secret agents or double agents that weren’t complex. Tudor, Cole and Laetitia were all quite likeable though with reservations because I was never quite sure what was going to jump out and bite me. They were commendable characters taking great risks for their country. Shelly too is a character to be admired, in the face of questionable evidence she chose to keep faith with her husband and set off on a quest of her own to find answers.
Many of the other characters were nauseating and reprehensible, I have never liked to hear/read/see anything about the fanatical followers of the Fuhrer and the staff he had enforcing his reign throughout the war.
Throughout the novel Chambers has used real historical figures and there are Author Notes to give a little background on the real people that appear in the book. The majority of the characters are fictitious and the story is fictional so the inclusion of historical figures seems a little superfluous.
The Great Deception illustrates the hardship faced by millions during the war, and the lingering effects afterwards. We are given an insight into life for Australians during the war, those still at home and doing what they can but still feeling that bit removed.
All in all an interesting read with all the elements of an engaging story, although it is one I found to be quite hard work. The element of romance was quite strong yet also quite subtle and slow building which worked for me, and I think for the story.
The Great Deception also explored the change the war wrought on people’s behaviour. Attachments and intimacies that may never have eventuated if it weren’t for the very real fear that at any time the reaper could come calling your name.
All of which worked just fine for me and then was instantly ruined with a seriously saccharine ending. I’m all for a happily ever after and everything working out for the best but this one took it a step too far for me, but I’m sure there will be romantics out there who read this and absolutely adore the ending.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
If you have a penchant for romance and wartime stories then this is your book! I think you’d love it. I found it personally fascinating as my grandparents (with their children – one of which was my mum) escaped from Europe by coming to Australia back it that war-torn time. No romance there for them at all – it was harsh and real from the stories my grandmother had told. So this a book that can be read with a delicious fictitious fairytale mindset – even though the timing of the setting is in that incredibly awful time in history. If you like surprises in a story you would like this book I think!
I found this story to be engaging, but the intricate detail and extensive facts at time took away from the plot itself.
Although the descriptive writing style painted beautiful imagery to the reader – as if you were there yourself – I found some of the ware related facts a little too dry.
Not a genre I would have usually chosen for myself but an interesting and educational red nonetheless!
The Great Deception is a wonderful story of love, lust, betrayal, honour, faith, hope and the war.
The love story between Shelly, Cole/Lucien, Laetitia and Dirk was lovely and warm, romantic.
It was quite interesting how it spanned many countries and going from Shelly’s story to Cole’s was quite well written.
The female characters are strong independant women who only want the best for the men in their lives.
The war part was descriptive and well presented and backed up with many facts and notations about some in the back.
The war story was quite indepth and alot of research has gone into the time and characters in the story. I did find it a bit too much to read but still it was interesting and in keeping with the story. It had let show you the two sides of the one person.
It was a book that I’m glad I’ve read but I doubt I would ever read it again.
Generally I love to read stories of the war and especially a story like this would normally catch my attention with romance caught up in mystery and suspense. Unfortunately I kept putting off picking the book up again after I had gotten through the first few chapters. The book wasn’t grabbing my attention like I had hoped it would
I did enjoy the first few chapters imaging the farm Shell and Cole had in Bowral although when Cole mysteriously disappears and Shell seems to put two and two together in an instant it just seemed a bit beyond what I could believe.
All of the war chapters seemed to drag out and I found I was skipping paragraphs when I couldn’t see where it was going and I was looking for something interesting to jump out at me.
All in all I definitely think it was a well written book in regards to the facts and research put into it but unfortunately the storyline just was not for me.
I truly loved the Great Deception I generally avoid war time stories thinking they might be too depressing but this story is enchanting, intriguing and very entertaining.
I found Cole to be a very interesting unique character at first thinking that he might be a shady character then when he was undercover I was genuinely scared hoping he wouldn’t be uncovered.
I loved the attention to historical detail which added to the drama and enjoyed the touch of romance.
Besides Cole I enjoyed the strong women in his life who never took a back seat in the story.
I will be recommending the book to family and friends ..thank you for the opportunity to review I really enjoyed it 🙂
The Great Deception takes you on a journey back in time to World War II to try and unravel the tangled web. You need to establish exactly who Cole is and work out if he is a trustworthy person or not.
I felt a connection to Shelly who was fighting hard to hold on to her marriage and relationship with a man who seemed to be a very confusing person to try and understand.
This is a book with a lot of mystery and romance.
I enjoyed this book but found it a little tough going in parts as I found my mind had wandered so i had to go back and reread parts to understand what I was reading.
Parts I found very easy to read and for some reason other parts I struggled with and Im not really sure why that was.
On a star rating I would give this book a 4 out of 5.
This certainly is a novel of epic proportions. I loved the beginning of the story, particularly reading about the life of our couple in rural Australia. However despite the apparent ease of their lifestyle the author managed to create an unsettling feeling. It wasn’t long before a crisis occurred and we were swept across to war-time Europe, which was the setting for the majority of the book.
The historical research that went into this book was obviously thorough, though I did feel a little bogged down in it at times. I had never thought about the possibility that Australian soldiers could have been ‘under cover’ in Europe during the Second World War – so often we only think about soldiers fighting in the jungles of Borneo and the deserts of Egypt, so this aspect of the book was enlightening and thought-provoking for me.
I enjoyed the portrayal of Shelly. Although she had an innocent and somewhat naive demeanor at the beginning of the story, her inner strength and character developed as her journey continued, and so she became more real and interesting to the reader.
The ending was perhaps a little too neat and tidy, and almost seemed a little abrupt to me after the extraordinary detail throughout the majority of the volume. It was an interesting read, though at no time did I feel truly captivated by it.
I’d have to say that I very much agree with Karin’s comments! Although I enjoyed the novel and have stayed up late for several nights reading, I found many parts of the novel just too far-fetched to accept! Yes, there are plenty of elements of historical fact incorporated into the plot, but there are other aspects that I reall yhad to question. I also found much of the dialogue very contrived – it seemed the author was trying to provide some crucial background detail, but it was not subtle enough.
Those criticisms aside, it was a nice straightforward read, one that I would probably pass onto to my Mum who likes a bit of historical fiction, but it’s certainly nothing I would rave about!
Well….I FINALLY finished the book. I didn’t want to write my review of the book until I had read the entire story.
It took me so long to read because I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t enjoy reading the massive section that was set in Germany, I found that the story didn’t ring true for me and although the author did have footnotes on certain people, places etc….it proved nothing at all to me, except that Joy could use Wikipedia.
One thing that annoyed me was the way Joy wrote, I couldn’t see why she continued to use ja, gut, and jawohl, when the rest was written in English, I would’ve preferred the entire thing in English instead of chopping and changing. I found Joy’s writing disjointed.
And if this Cole Wareing was a ‘secret operative’ he would’ve gone in to this whole thing completely up-to-scratch with every bit of information regarding Bayer, he was supposed to be this deadly killing machine, extremely smart and yet he was clueless to important gatherings that Bayer had been to and his old acquaintances…I mean if I was going to impersonate a high ranking officer in the SS during the War, I would make sure I knew EVERYTHING about him, it’d be foolproof. Cole was an idiot. And the Germans knew deep down because his whole demeanour had changed, he was nothing like he used to be, people don’t change that much!
And then with his so called friends Dirk, Mako and Felix, who had been his ‘brothers’ in arms in other instances, turned on him…just like that, with no real proof. That doesn’t exacty shout loyalty or brotherhood. Surely they would of allowed Cole to have his say before wanting to kill him.
I found Shelley annoying and her Mum…OMG, she was worse.
Letta was the only OK part of the story that I enjoyed reading about, she was tough and ballsy and a very strong, independant woman for those times. And I was very disappointed at the end when she died before Cole arrived…and then to find that she had had Tudor’s baby…uugghhh, I didn’t see the point in adding that bit of information.
I could not stand the language of the entire story. Here’s Cole, in the middle of Nazi territory during the War, impersonating an SS Officer and he never swears once…instead he’s like. “Gosh, gee”. I don’t think he even said “damn or hell”. For example..this from the last page;
“But it’s you I want for all time, Shell. You’re the one I want and need for all time”.
“Oh heaven, Cole, then can we go home? Home to Apple Gate?”
“God Shell, yes,we can. Just you and me, that’s what I need.”
Are you kidding me?? Seriously. This woman just travelled by boat, train, bus, taxi, walking, across the other side of the World chasing Cole and tring to find out his secrets and this is how it ends.
Even the other so called ‘killing machines’ Tudor, Mako and Felix were ridiculous in their language. During the apology;
Mako – “Ah, please accept our apology, we made a terrible blunder.”
Felix – “Gosh yeah, Cole, we regret this bloody awful mistake…”
Cole says he accepts their (weak) apologies and someone replies;
“Heck, thanks, Cole.”
Heck, gosh, blunder…………………Who are you kidding Joy Chambers, nobody talks like this, especially not rugged killing machines that have been in the middle of the War, almost blown to smithereens and kept as prisoners?
To say I really disliked this book is an understatement. I’m sorry but I’ve never read anything so bad!
At last someone who agrees with me. Badly written, stilted dialogue, abounds in grammatical errors and a truly appalling ending.
I feel a bit bad for being so blunt and harsh but it really frustrated me. Especially after I watched Joy Chambers on ACA the other week spruiking this book and stating that this ‘is my best yet’….if this is the case I would hate to read her other books.
I’m going to say straight-up that I didn’t particularly enjoy this book – the premise sounded great, and I’m a huge fan of historical fiction, particularly war-based novels, but the premise was pretty much the only good thing about it. The characters were entirely one-dimensional, not at all endearing, and as forced as the dialogue and action. What seemed at first to be a really excellent idea for a book has pretty much been diluted by cliches and daytime soapie-level overdramatics.
The plot had me vaguely interested enough to keep reading for a while, but most of the big questions were solved in the first few chapters, and I found that I didn’t really care to hear about all the specifics. Adjectives are scattered like weeds throughout the prose, making the narration seem just as forced as the unnatural dialogue. There was also an irksome amount of description on the protagonists’ attractiveness, which just seems unnecessary and further turns them from characters to cliches.
Overall, romance novel readers might enjoy this, but it was definitely a pretty weak attempt to edge into the suspense/thriller genre that completely failed, in both plot and execution. I don’t recommend it.