5-STAR REVIEW: THE CRIMSON THREAD by Kate Forsyth

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About The Book

Publication Date: July 5, 2022

In Crete during World War II, Alenka, a young woman who fights with the resistance against the brutal Nazi occupation, finds herself caught between her traitor of a brother and the man she loves, an undercover agent working for the Allies.

May 1941. German paratroopers launch a blitzkrieg from the air against Crete. They are met with fierce defiance, the Greeks fighting back with daggers, pitchforks, and kitchen knives. During the bloody eleven-day battle, Alenka, a young Greek woman, saves the lives of two Australian soldiers.

Jack and Teddy are childhood friends who joined up together to see the world. Both men fall in love with Alenka. They are forced to retreat with the tattered remains of the Allied forces over the towering White Mountains. Both are among the seven thousand Allied soldiers left behind in the desperate evacuation from Crete’s storm-lashed southern coast. Alenka hides Jack and Teddy at great risk to herself. Her brother Axel is a Nazi sympathiser and collaborator and spies on her movements.

As Crete suffers under the Nazi jackboot, Alenka is drawn into an intense triangle of conflicting emotions with Jack and Teddy. Their friendship suffers under the strain of months of hiding and their rivalry for her love. Together, they join the resistance and fight to free the island, but all three will find themselves tested to their limits. Alenka must choose whom to trust and whom to love and, in the end, whom to save.

The Review

History books swell with accounts of Hitler’s invasion, but the struggle to save Crete from the Nazis serves as the basis for The Crimson Thread by Kate Forsyth.

The premise focuses on a young woman named Alenka who finds herself on opposite sides of the conflict from her brother, a Nazi sympathizer. She saves the lives of two Australian soldiers, who both fall for her. When the fight heats up, the three must put everything on the line in order to survive.

As an added point of interest, the author uses the story as a way to retell the legend of Ariadne and the minotaur in a completely new and exciting way. Bridging the gap between mythology and World War II offers plenty of interesting opportunities for development.

With over 400 pages, the story seamlessly integrates fact and fiction. The author’s note provides additional insight into her motivations for writing the book. Fans of historical fiction will thoroughly enjoy digging in.

The Crimson Thread delivers a fresh look at the resistance effort during World War II, featuring love, betrayal, and the fight for survival.

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About The Author

Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at the age of seven, and is now the internationally bestselling author of 40 books for both adults and children.

Her books for adults include ‘Beauty in Thorns’, the true love story behind a famous painting of ‘Sleeping Beauty’; ‘The Beast’s Garden’, a retelling of the Grimm version of ‘Beauty & the Beast’, set in the German underground resistance to Hitler in WWII; ‘The Wild Girl’, the love story of Wilhelm Grimm and Dortchen Wild, the young woman who told him many of the world’s most famous fairy tales; ‘Bitter Greens’, a retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale; and the bestselling fantasy series ‘Witches of Eileanan’ Her books for children include ‘The Impossible Quest’, ‘The Gypsy Crown’, ‘The Puzzle Ring’, and ‘The Starkin Crown’