Audiobook Review: Smoke Signal by Marie Benedict & Kate Quinn

Author: Marie Benedict & Kate Quinn

Narrator: Nicola Barber & Saskia Maarleveld

Title: Smoke Signal

Genre: Historical Fiction, Short Story, Mystery, Thriller, Novella

Format: Audiobook

Published: February 11, 2021

Where I got It: Audible

Summary: 

Recruited as a code breaker of enemy ciphers, ex-debutante Osla Kendall spends her days translating Axis military messages and her nights reading mystery novels. When Osla gets her hands on Agatha Christie's most recent work, N or M?, a mysterious signal within its pages catches her eye, and she and her eccentric book club get in touch with the famous but reclusive writer. Osla's outreach is a welcome distraction for Agatha, who feels restless and underestimated toiling away in a London pharmacy while men like her husband can contribute to the war effort from the front lines.

So begins the story of an unlikely friendship and the secrets that bind two brave women embroiled in war. Based on true events and told by two beloved authors and champions of history's heroines, Smoke Signal is a breathtaking novella of espionage and the unforgettable women who risked everything to serve their country.

To learn more about Osla Kendall and Agatha Christie, see Marie Benedict's The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, a novel of Agatha Christie's disappearance in 1926, and Kate Quinn's forthcoming The Rose Code, a novel of the female code breakers of Bletchley Park.

Review:

Randomly stumbled upon this while searching for something else. It caught my eye...1) the cover and 2) the 2nd author of the book...Kate Quinn...love her! So why not?

Osla was recruiter as a code-breaker. She spends her days translating Axis military messages and her nights reading mystery novels. While reading one of the newest Agatha Christie mysteries...something catches her eye. She turns to her fellow book club members to track down the elusive author. On the other side, Agatha has been feeling restless so when Osla reaches out it is a welcomed distraction. Together these two ladies will work together to serve their country. This is based on true events. 

This has everything I love. A great author. A great narrator. Mystery. War. Friendship. Spies! However......it took me forever to actually attach myself to the story. At one point I left the room and realized I didn't pause it. I wasn't truly paying attention. I rewound it and made myself listen. 

After a certain point I found myself getting involved and caring, but it took at least to the halfway point when things were cooking.

Honestly? I think this just needed one narrator. I love Saskia Maarleveld and she was perfect. The other narrator didn't really hit it for me. The voices didn't match. and I just didn't....vibe. 

I still need to read 'The Rose Code' by Kate Quinn. Osla is in that book! Osla was a gem so I def need to get my rump to read where it all began. 

The ending? I simply ADORED it. It was nice. It was perfection. 

All-in-all, this was a mixed bag for me. The things I liked...I LOVED. There were things I could've been okay without. Honestly, the beginning just didn't catch me. I kept pushing because I wanted to really like this. Luckily I did push on because I loved the last half so much. I shall stamp this with.....3 stars. The last half and Saskia gave this life. 

ONE WORD SUMMARY: Mixed

Challenge(s):
- Audiobook #23

- Cloak and Dagger - #12

Blodeuedd's Monday Review: The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

By: Marie Benedict

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 01-08-19

Language: English

Publisher: Audible Studios

My Thoughts

The book is in two parts. Before Hollywood and Hollywood. I did like the before bits a lot more, Hollywood was good too, but the more I think about it, the more i think I know why. See this is a fictionalized story of Hedy Lamarr. The bones are there and the things we know, but not everything was known about her Austria days and I felt that the author embraced that more then and let her pen fly. And then when we came to Hollywood there was so much she wanted to talk about that we know happened. Like what a meat market Hollywood was which she surely wanted to talk about cos of MeToo. And how Hedy worries about war, and then war comes so she worries about Jews. And on top of that she is making so many movies and they are all mentioned. Plus her inventions. See, there was just so much going on there. Still good, but I really liked the drama of the first part.

Part one. Hedwig Kleiser, Jewish, even if she does not think of her that way, she is Austrian after all. Actress and now celebrated in the stage production of Sisi. She is 19 an a whirlwind. I liked her from page 1. Then then drama starts, a rich older man wants her and she obeys. This is Austria in the 30s after all. Her father knows trouble is coming and the third richest man in Austria might just protect her and them then. He is a controlling man who just wants pretty armcandy to show his friends.

And this part was exciting. A husband she grew to fear more and more. Tensions rising in Austria. Her husband being part of the Austrian political elite. It was this whole other life I did not know she had had.

Then comes Hollywood. I did feel she suffered a bit too much from survivors guilt. She went on and on how she could have saved the Jews of Austria. I think not. 

And the thrilling part how freaking smart she was. I wish the author had showed more of that in her earlier years. It was like she suddenly was a genius. I mean she invented something that now was a forerunner to bluetooth, wifi, gps (and the military swept that under the rug, aholes.)

Conclusion

That is why I really enjoyed this book. What a fascinating woman! Everyone should read it and see for themselves.

Narrator

I liked her narration because it felt like it was an older Hedy talking. It brought you really close into the story.

Synopsis

Hedy Kiesler is lucky. Her beauty leads to a starring role in a controversial film and marriage to a powerful Austrian arms dealer, allowing her to evade Nazi persecution despite her Jewish heritage. But Hedy is also intelligent. At lavish Vienna dinner parties, she overhears the Third Reich's plans. One night in 1937, desperate to escape her controlling husband and the rise of the Nazis, she disguises herself and flees her husband's castle.

She lands in Hollywood, where she becomes Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But Hedy is keeping a secret even more shocking than her Jewish heritage: she is a scientist. She has an idea that might help the country and that might ease her guilt for escaping alone -- if anyone will listen to her. A powerful novel based on the incredible true story of the glamour icon and scientist whose groundbreaking invention revolutionized modern communication, The Only Woman in the Room is a masterpiece.