Changes

Ooh, ooh, ooh! My goodness but ''Orphan Monster Spy'' is a gripping book. I read all four hundred pages on a Sunday afternoon in one sitting and looked up to discover it was dark outside and perilously close to bed time! Killeen plunges us into the narrative by way of in media res - right in the middle of a scene in which central character Sarah is witness to her mother's murder at the hands of the Nazis. It's gruesome. And I should say here, if gruesome isn't your thing, this book won't be either because it doesn't pull any punches. So, Sarah's mother gets her head shot off right in front of her and the first chapter is a terrifying night-time chase, during the course of which Sarah meets a man who will change the trajectory of her life completely. You can see why I had to keep reading, can't you?

But this story isn't ''all'' about Sarah, fantastic as Sarah is. The supporting cast comes to you fully-fleshed and interesting - from the conflicted Captain, through the snarky Polish nurse who comes up trumps, to the pliant but resilient Mouse, trying to find her own way through an uncompromising Reich. Real life nuclear physicist Lise Meitner also gets a cameo role and I hope readers make the effort to look her up after reading - an element is named after her as a kind of consolation prize for having been overlooked for the Nobel prize in favour of her collaborator Otto Hahn - a man. And this brings me to the underlying feminist message in ''Orphan Monster Spy''. Yes, Sarah is a kick ass heroine but this book isn't superficial about it. Sarah is more than just a good action scene. She is funny and clever and resourceful and she gets the better of all the men she meets - even the Captain, who is on her side. And, in their own ways, so do other female characters in this story - the nurse, Elsa, Mouse, even Sarah's own mother in the end.