Operation Tulip by Deborah Swift: heart-pounding drama, bone-chilling cruelty and plot twists – book review –

With the Nazis purloining food stocks, destroying ports, and terrorising the civilians, it was a desperate time for those who were trapped but the work of the Resistance movement continued, with undercover operatives seeking ways to disrupt or report back on German activities.

And it is this deadly end-of-war period – known to the Dutch as the Hunger Winter – which forms the thrilling backdrop to the final book in bestselling Lancashire-based author Deborah Swift’s gripping Secret Agents trilogy which has included The Silk Code and The Shadow Network.

Swift, who lives in Warton, near Carnforth, used to work backstage as a scenographer in many North-West theatres, including Liverpool Playhouse and The Duke’s theatre, Lancaster, and it is her imaginative flair, painstaking research, and keen eye for drama and authenticity, that has made her novels so viscerally real and exciting.

In this page-turning last chapter of what has been an outstanding and hugely popular series, we meet up again with fearless SOE agent and fluent Dutch and French speaker Nancy Callaghan whose dicing-with-death missions and love affair with coding expert Tom Lockwood in London has won the hearts of readers.

In her tense new undercover mission in the autumn of 1944, we find Nancy in northern Holland where the Germans are clinging on ‘like an angry toddler with a toy’ after Allied airborne troops failed in their brave attempt to capture the bridge at Arnhem and forge a critical invasion route.

Unable to contact other networks or Tom Lockwood, the man she loves, Nancy is one of the few agents left and faces her toughest case yet in The Hague. A key member of the Dutch resistance has been captured and they need to locate where he is and find out how much the Nazis know about the Resistance networks.

Nancy – who is ’not the crumbling type’ – is assigned to play the role of Danique Koopman, wealthy widow of a Nazi sympathiser, and win over notorious SS officer, Detlef Keller, who is in charge of the records that log crucial information about Resistance prisoners and their transportation.

Meanwhile in London, Tom is devastated to learn that the Allies have failed to push back the Nazis, leaving northern Holland completely cut off from the rest of Europe... and also leaving him cut off from his beloved Nancy.

Tom isn’t supposed to even know that Nancy is an agent but, desperate to rescue the love of his life, he devises Operation Tulip, an audacious plan to bring Nancy home by heading off to Europe alone and making his way into Holland through the Allied lines.

But as Nancy infiltrates the Dutch SS, she finds herself catching the eye of an even more senior member of the Nazi Party. Is she now too deep in the enemy camp, and can Tom reach her before she gets caught?

One of the secrets of Swift’s success as a historical novelist is the depth and rich detail of her research, an aspect of her writing which she finds the most enjoyable and rewarding. And the immaculate wartime backdrop she paints for this atmospheric and heart-pounding tale brings to life German-occupied Holland and all its breathtaking darkness, danger and menace.

It’s an eye-opening story of undying love, and immense bravery and sacrifice set against the harsh realities faced by Dutch people north of the Rhine in the last agonising months of the Second World War. The country’s proximity to Germany meant many residents agreed with the Nazi regime, and betrayal by neighbours and friends was not uncommon.

With starvation ravaging many urban areas, death or transportation from a vengeful and rampant enemy a constant threat, and trust something that can’t be taken for granted, Holland is now cut off from the Allies and at the mercy of the Nazis.

And it’s through Nancy’s work as an undercover operative, and the deadly perils of her high-risk assignment to infiltrate the Dutch SS, that Swift shows us just how courageous were those selfless wartime agents who put their lives on the line every moment of every day spent in enemy territory.

With real history in the raw, heart-pounding drama, bone-chilling cruelty, plot twists, and the sheer power of true love, this is a terrific finale to an unforgettable series.

And there is a chance to learn more about Swift’s research for the Secret Agents series and the work of the women of the wartime Dutch Resistance when she gives an author talk at Carnforth Bookshop in Carnforth, Lancashire, at 2pm on Saturday, October 5.

(HQ, paperback, £9.99)