Girl in the Blue Coat
By Monica Hesse
Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman’s frantic plea to find a person—a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.
Review by Josephine Berglund
Beautifully plotted, it has a few twists that are totally unexpected and emotional. The Girl in the Blue Coat challenges its characters in uncertain times to step forward with courage to benefit someone else. How will they do this and what will happen to them? It will keep you turning pages to reach an unexpected ending. An excellent read.