Operation Cameo

By Hannah Howe

I sat in the farmhouse in front of the open fire and read Vivienne Fernandez’s file.

Aged 24, she resided in London where, before the SOE recruited her, she was a switchboard operator. Multilingual, she enjoyed gymnastics - like Mimi - cycling, ice-skating and dressmaking. Her assessors also noted that she loved to party.

I’d met her from the plane and noted her elegance and grace. She was stylish, beautiful - the complete package. Jealousy should have raised its ugly head. Instead, I smiled at that recent memory; I liked her.

Vivienne’s French husband had died fighting for the Free French in Senegal. She’d left a two-year-old daughter at home, with childminders. Father and daughter had never met. That was sad, and all too familiar.

Vivienne’s mother was English, her father French. They’d lived on the French-Spanish border and, when the Nazis invaded, escaped over the Pyrenees. It was a route I knew well.

I tore Vivienne’s file into strips and placed it on the fire. Within seconds, it turned to ash, consumed by the orange and yellow flames.

I wondered what Guy would make of Vivienne. I would discover his thoughts soon enough, when he returned from the coast. I wondered how she would fit into our team. As a short-term replacement for Mimi, I didn’t foresee any problems.

In retrospect, I would regard that assessment as a huge mistake.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Goylake Publishing
• Release date: Feb 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781838354879

Hannah Howe

Hannah Howe is the bestselling author of the Sam Smith Mystery Series (Sam's Song, book one in the series, has reached number one on the amazon.com private detective chart on seven separate occasions and the number one position in Australia). Hannah lives in the picturesque county of Glamorgan with her partner and their two children. She has a university degree and a background in psychology, which she uses as a basis for her novels.Hannah began her writing career at school when her teacher asked her to write the school play. She has been writing ever since. When not writing or researching Hannah enjoys reading, genealogy, music, chess and classic black and white movies. She has a deep knowledge of nineteenth and twentieth century popular culture and is a keen student of the private detective novel and its history.Hannah's books are available in print, as audio books and eBooks from all major retailers: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Kobo, iBooks, etc. For more details please visit https://hannah-howe.comThe Sam Smith Mystery Series in book order:Sam's SongLove and BulletsThe Big ChillRipperThe Hermit of HisaryaSecrets and LiesFamily HonourSins of the FatherSmoke and MirrorsStardustMind GamesDigging in the DirtA Parcel of RoguesBostonThe Devil and Ms DevlinSnow in AugustLooking for Rosanna MeeStormy WeatherDamagedEve’s War: Heroines of SOEOperation ZigzagOperation LocksmithOperation BroadswordOperation TreasureOperation SherlockOperation CameoOperation RoseOperation WatchmakerOperation OverlordOperation Jedburgh (to follow)Operation Butterfly (to follow)Operation Liberty (to follow)The Golden Age of HollywoodTula: A 1920s Novel (to follow)The Olive Tree: A Spanish Civil War SagaRootsBranchesLeavesFruitFlowersThe Ann's War Mystery Series in book order:BetrayalInvasionBlackmailEscapeVictoryStandalone NovelsSaving Grace: A Victorian MysteryColette: A Schoolteacher’s War (to follow)What readers have been saying about the Sam Smith Mystery Series and Hannah Howe..."Hannah Howe is a very talented writer.""A gem of a read.""Sam Smith is the most interesting female sleuth in detective fiction. She leaves all the others standing.""Hannah Howe's writing style reminds you of the Grandmasters of private detective fiction - Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker.""Sam is an endearing character. Her assessments of some of the people she encounters will make you laugh at her wicked mind. At other times, you'll cry at the pain she's suffered.""Sam is the kind of non-assuming heroine that I couldn't help but love.""Sam's Song was a wonderful find and a thoroughly engaging read. The first book in the Sam Smith mystery series, this book starts off as a winner!""Sam is an interesting and very believable character.""Gripping and believable at the same time, very well written.""Sam is a great heroine who challenges stereotypes.""Hannah Howe is a fabulous writer.""I can't wait to read the next in the series!""The Big Chill is light reading, but packs powerful messages.""This series just gets better and better.""What makes this book stand well above the rest of detective thrillers is the attention to the little details that makes everything so real.""Sam is a rounded and very real character.""Howe is an author to watch, able to change the tone from light hearted to more thoughtful, making this an easy and yet very rewarding read. Cracking!""Fabulous book by a fabulous author-I highly recommended this series!""Howe writes her characters with depth and makes them very engaging.""I loved the easy conversational style the author used throughout. Some of the colourful ways that the main character expressed herself actually made me laugh!""I loved Hannah Howe's writing style -- poignant one moment, terrifying the next, funny the next moment. I would be on the edge of my seat praying Sam wouldn't get hurt, and then she'd say a one-liner or think something funny, and I'd chuckle and catch my breath. Love it!""Sam's Song is no lightweight suspense book. Howe deals with drugs, spousal abuse, child abuse, and more. While the topics she writes about are heavy, Howe does a fantastic job of giving the reader the brutal truth while showing us there is still good in life and hope for better days to come."

Book preview

EVE’S WAR

OPERATION

CAMEO

EVE’S WAR

OPERATION

CAMEO

Hannah Howe

Goylake Publishing

Copyright © 2022 Hannah Howe

All rights reserved.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Goylake Publishing, Iscoed, 16A Meadow Street, North Cornelly, Bridgend, Glamorgan. CF33 4LL

Print ISBN: 978-1-7397388-0-8

eBook ISBN: 978-1-8383548-7-9

Printed and bound in Britain by Imprint Digital, Exeter, EX5 5HY

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.

Author’s Note

The characters in Eve’s War are fictional. However, all the stories and the incidents within these stories, from the personal to the public, are based on real events.

The series is structured into twelve books, each of approximately 20,000 words, set roughly two months apart. Within the back matter of each book, you will find potted biographies of the real heroes and heroines of the SOE, the people whom Eve Beringar, Guy Samson and Mimi Duchamp are based on. It’s been an honour to read about these incredibly brave and principled people. I hope you will enjoy their stories and the exploits of my characters in Eve’s War.

Hannah’s books are available in print, as eBooks and audio books with translations in progress

Eve’s War

Operation Zigzag

Operation Locksmith

Operation Broadsword

Operation Treasure

Operation Sherlock

Operation Cameo

Operation Rose

Operation Watchmaker

Operation Overlord

Operation Jedburgh

Operation Butterfly

Operation Liberty

Ann’s War

Betrayal

Invasion

Blackmail

Escape

Victory

Stand-alone Novel

Saving Grace

The Sam Smith Mystery Series

Sam’s Song

Love and Bullets

The Big Chill

Ripper

The Hermit of Hisarya

Secrets and Lies

Family Honour

Sins of the Father

Smoke and Mirrors

Stardust

Mind Games

Digging in the Dirt

A Parcel of Rogues

Boston

The Devil and Ms Devlin

Snow in August

Looking for Rosanna Mee

Stormy Weather

Damaged

The Olive Tree: A Spanish Civil War Saga

Roots

Branches

Leaves

Fruit

Flowers

To my family, with love

Chapter One

November 1943

I’d used coloured pencils to sketch the autumnal scene at La Tresse. Situated seven kilometres west of our base at Dol-de-Bretagne, La Tresse contained a number of open fields, green and rutted after the growing and ploughing seasons. The ruts were not ideal for an aeroplane but, at this time of year, we were lucky to find a suitable field, one free of marshland and boggy water.

Along three sides, trees shielded the field and they had attracted my artistic eye, their leaves a rich blend of russet, scarlet and gold. I’d walked the field, assessing the ruts. Of course, they followed a regular pattern, straight lines. However, those lines often crossed, intersected at a number of locations.

Guy Samson, our network leader, reckoned that the field would pass muster, providing the weather remained dry. For five days we’d enjoyed crisp, autumnal conditions, and the forecast was set fair for the next twenty-four hours.

Guy was on the coast, assessing potential landing sites. Over the past month he’d spent a lot of time on the coast, while Mimi Duchamp and I had spent many hours transmitting messages to Major-General Colin Cunningham, codenamed Arthur, our leader in London.

The urgency and the amount of activity suggested that the Allies would soon land and seek to liberate France. Crossing the channel in winter, and driving tanks and armoured vehicles through muddy terrain, was a nonstarter. Therefore, I anticipated that the invasion would take place in the spring or summer. The locals shared that expectation. Although some had adjusted to the Nazi occupation and become collaborators, many were keen to drive the fascist vermin from their country and return to a higher quality of life.

The increased wireless activity had burned Mimi to a frazzle. Initially youthful and exuberant, now she looked haggard and worn out. Of course, she protested and insisted that she was fine; she wanted to remain in France, to fight the Nazis and to rendezvous with her fiancé, Henri Bonnet.

We believed that Henri was a prisoner of war, but a rumour suggested that he’d escaped and returned to France. These days, you heard so many rumours; it was often difficult to ascertain the truth.

Regarding Mimi, Arthur had agreed with Guy’s assessment, and that’s why we were standing in the field, in the shadows cast by the moonlight, waiting for the aeroplane.

With Guy on the coast, I was nominally in charge of our section. This annoyed the hell out of Maxime Durand, leader of the local Maquis. I didn’t like or trust Durand. A number of the locals shared my suspicions. Indeed, instead of joining his Maquis many young men had volunteered for Jean-Claude Quiniou’s nascent organisation.

I liked and trusted Jean-Claude, and in Guy’s absence, he’d become my right-hand man. Jean-Claude had no problems taking orders from a woman, which made him a rarity in our corner of France.

Young men were joining Jean-Claude’s Maquis to escape the clutches of the Nazis. Increasingly, the Nazis were conducting searches, rounding up men with unreserved occupations and shipping them to Germany to act as slave labour. Caught between ‘the devil and the deep blue sea’ these men chose to live in the forests, as outlaws.

The power struggle between Jean-Claude Quiniou and Maxime Durand served as a microcosm for the situation in France. There was a growing belief that we would win the war and factions were already manoeuvring, looking to seize the initiative and fill the vacuum, once the Allies had forced the Nazis into retreat.

I glanced at the sky and noticed breaks in the clouds. Jean-Claude and Mimi stood alongside me. The wind was fresh and in unison we adjusted our overcoats, pulling them tight around our shoulders. Jean-Claude’s men lined the fields, ready to light the lanterns while others patrolled the lanes as lookouts.

A new wireless operator would replace Mimi. She would arrive on the aeroplane. I understood that her name was Vivienne Fernandez, codenamed Odette. At the moment, I knew nothing more about her, although Arthur had ensured us that Vivienne would arrive with a document and those papers would fill in the blanks.

True to form,