Customer Reviews

Sparrow's Revenge: A Novel of Postwar Tuscany

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While dealing with the Italian phase of WW II and specifically, the activities of some disparite Partisan groups seeking an fighting guerilla warfare with occupying NAZI SS forces controling mid-section and North of the Italian penninsula, it also is a fictionalized but compelling story of the individuals who so fought and led those men and women.

Main characters of the book are well and soundly characterized with skill enough to let one forget, momentarily, that this was not a pure 'history' text about War. It is strongly engaging and leads on to 'put it down' with reluctance until next time!

Revenge is something some people are willing to travel long and hard to find. "Sparrow's Revenge" follows a gentleman who used the codename of Sparrow as he fought as a resistance fighter through World War II. With the war over, Sparrow's war is not, as he devotes his postwar life in order to track down a war criminal who escaped Nazi Germany and capture. "Sparrow's Revenge" is a story of vengeance and how it drives people, and the potential problems of being fueled by it.

Anyone who has read Paul's first book in this trilogy will be delighted by the character development that has occurred in this second book. Sparrow is not a major character in the first book, but he is present enough that we get to know him. In this volume, we get to know him even deeper as he goes after the villain. But wait, is a villain always a villain? Could a villain be a victim of circumstances, and could he have acted in his own personal tragedy? And then what does such a villain do afterwards? With a past, what does he have for a present and a future? Paul Salsini somehow includes a ton of action in this book with an ability also to sketch out tremendous detail in each scene. The detail is not only the stage on which the drama unfolds, but the detail is that of personality and character of the individuals involved. This superb novel should not be missed either on its own or as a sequel to Paul's first book.