Helen of She Read Novels has posted a note about Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP XIX), which I always forget about but usually participate in. As somewhat of a suspense novel, My Father’s House qualifies, so let this be the start of my participation this year. Most of the action is on Instagram at @PerilReaders, but I am not a great user of that.
My Father’s House is a book I read for my Walter Scott project, and it is also the first in O’Connor’s Roman Escape Line trilogy. It is based on the true story of the Escape Line, a group of people who helped captured soldiers and others escape from the Nazi occupation of Rome. In particular, it focuses on Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, one of the group’s founders.
After Rome is overrun by the Nazis, the Vatican gives Monsignor O’Flaherty a duty of ministering to British soldiers in Nazi captivity. Being an Irishman, he isn’t eager to do this duty. However, when he sees the condition of the men and the ease with which the Nazis break the Geneva Conventions, his manner to the Germans is such that he is removed from the duty. In this way, he comes to the attention of Obersturmbannführer Paul Hauptmann.
O’Flaherty then decides to form a group to help soldiers escape from the Nazis. The group becomes successful enough that Hauptmann begins receiving threatening communications from Himmler.
Much of the novel centers around a Rendimento, as the Choir, the central group that runs the Escape Line, calls their missions. The group has planned its mission for Christmas Eve (1943), thinking that Hauptmann won’t expect it, but in the last few days, Sam Derry, an escaped British major who would normally run it, is incapacitated. They begin training Enzo Angelucci instead.
The main focus of the novel is whether the mission will be successful, but the narration travels around in time and person via transcripts of interviews of several of the participants. In some respects, this structure is interesting, helping you get to know the other characters, but they didn’t all have distinct voices, and you didn’t get to know them well. There is also the disadvantage that the approach tends to interrupt the building suspense.
I thought the novel was very interesting in its subject matter. I’d never heard of the Escape Line. However, as the first of a trilogy, I’m not sure how much more there is to say, even though no doubt there are many adventures to recount. I didn’t feel as if I got to know most of the characters in the novel, not even the Monsignor.
What? Me Read? 
I did try to read this but I’d recently watched The Scarlet and the Black, the film on this subject starring Gregory Peck. This was excellent, superb casting and narrative pace, but did leave me feeling that the book had nothing to add and like you I can’t see how the writer will string it out for three books
Yes, I also couldn’t help comparing him to Robert Harris, and he didn’t handle suspense as well. I think he’s better at his historical novels about literary characters. Did you post a review for it, or are you just not going to read it?
I don’t have a blog, I just read and comment on other people’s.
And no, I don’t think I’ll give it another go as I feel I know the story so well.
Oh, I’m sorry. I got you mixed up with another Helen.
Oh, I see I have a link to your review.
Sounds a bit bland, given the subject matter. I’m increasingly tired of the obsession in fiction with WW2 It’s been overdone in the last few years, I think.
I’ve moved on a bit from the War but only to the postwar period! There are some good novels coming out about that. I enjoyed both Frances Faviell’s books (A House on the Rhine & The Dancing Bear, although this was non-fiction), Kelly Rimmer’s The German Wife, Anika Scott’s The German Heiress and most recently Josie Ferguson’s The Silence in Between. All of these look at aspects of the postwar world which have not (yet!) been done to death.
I have the Dancing Bear on my nightstand, so it’s coming up soon.
I liked this book a lot, but was surprised to see it was going to be part of a trilogy. I will probably still read book 2 just to see how it plays out.
Thanks for sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
Thanks for posting it! I will probably read the second one, too, but it really didn’t seem as if there was enough here for a trilogy.