Very clever blending of fiction with fact, covering the period of Hitler's build-up to the invasion of the Sudentenland and then Czechoslavakia in 1938, through the eyes of a Scot and German fighter pilot. Only surprising slip I thought I noticed, was to say Chamberlain flew to Munich with British Airways,. However, I subsequently discovered British Airways, pre-dated British Overseas Airways (BOAC) which was the name adopted in 1939! ( )

This series (Wars Within) seems a partial reversion to the thrillers Graham Hurley wrote before his very successful and highly localised venture into crime with the Faraday/Winter franchise.

If it is a series then settings certainly aren't in chronology. As this is the first I've read but the third in order of publication I can't really comment much further - though I wouldn't be surprise to find that there are shared characters. Some plot threads or themes are certainly left hanging or at least unexplored. Europe in the late 1930s (principally Germany) is the backdrop though not the only one. This is the kind of territory that Alan Furst and others have explored in recent decades, and there's more than a whiff of his brand of pre-war espionage here.

To my mind, it succeeds better than the sometimes clunky thrillers this author used to write. His enthusiasm for the aviation aspect isn't overplayed or given too much emphasis - and the plotting stays crisp.

There's nothing startlingly original here but I think I'll try the other two in the series for size and see how they fit.