JACKDAWS

With the Allied invasion of Europe only days away, Flick Clairet, a steel-nerved operative in the British Army, leads a group of women into occupied France to destroy a vital German communications center. Their adversary is a ruthless Nazi intelligence officer with a talent for torture. Kate Reading's cool narration is appropriate to a thriller involving two icy opponents. If her characterizations are lacking, the fault is not hers, but that of an author whose imagination has failed him. He takes pains to assemble a Dirty Dozen team of female agents and then renders them virtually indistinguishable from one another. That and Follet's penchant for soap opera leave Reading, like Flick Clairet, with little choice but to simply get on with it. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: JUN/JUL 02]