The Darkest Hour

by Caroline Tung Richmond

Overview

My name is Lucie Blaise.I am sixteen years old.I have many aliases, but I am none of the girls you see.What I am is the newest recruit of Covert Ops.And we are here to take down Hitler.After the Nazis killed my brother on the North African front, I volunteered at the Office of Strategic Services in Washington to do my part for the war effort. Only instead of a desk job at the OSS, I was tapped to join the Clandestine Operations--a secret espionage and sabotage organization of girls. Six months ago, I was deployed to German-occupied France to gather intelligence and eliminate Nazi targets.My current mission: Track down and interrogate a Nazi traitor about a weapon that threatens to wipe out all of Western Europe. Then find and dismantle the weapon before Hitler detonates it. But the deeper I investigate, the more danger I'm in. Because the fate of the free world hangs in the balance, and trusting the wrong person could cause millions of lives to be lost. Including my own.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545801287
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	07/26/2016
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	944,747
Lexile:	790L (what's this?)
File size:	6 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Caroline Tung Richmond is the author of the alternative history novels The Only Thing to Fear and Live in Infamy, as well as the historical fiction novel The Darkest Hour. She’s also the program director of We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit that seeks to create a world where all children can find themselves on the pages of a book.

A self-proclaimed history nerd and cookie connoisseur, Caroline lives in Maryland with her family and her dog, Otto von Bismarck—named for the German chancellor (naturally). You can find out more about at her at carolinetrichmond.com.

Read an Excerpt

"They’re coming!" I shout to Sabine. Two Nazi soldiers are stumbling toward us, still coughing from the tear gas. I throw my dagger at the first, and the blade hits home, plunging into his shoulder. He falls to his knees with a cry, but the other soldier leaps over him and points a finger at us. "To the back!” Sabine tells me. We hurtle through the door that leads outside. The wind snatches at our hair and tosses strands of our wigs into our faces. I tear the thing off and let it fly out of my hands. The ground beneath us is a dizzying blur, and I remember the L-pill in my pocket, but we can still make it off this train. Sabine pushes me forward until my stomach hits the metal railing, the last barrier between me and the tracks. "Don’t lock your knees," she tells me. "Wait—" "There’s no other choice!" She turns back to fire a round, and I quash the alarm lodged in my throat. Calm and collected. Calm and collected. Oh, never mind. I clamber over the rails. The wind blasts against my body, stealing tears from my eyesand even though I haven’t done this in months I make the sign of the cross. "Hail Mary, full of grace," I whisper. With that prayer on my lips, I jump.

Editorial Reviews

05/09/2016
Teenage girls act as spies for the Allies in this WWII thriller primarily set in Nazi-occupied France. It’s 1943, and 16-year-old Lucie Blaise is an American serving with the Covert Ops unit of the Office of Strategic Services as an agent-in-training. Unfortunately, her lack of cold-blooded ruthlessness threatens to end her career before she can avenge her older brother, a soldier killed in action. When Covert Ops gets wind of a secret German project that could devastate Europe, Lucie and her colleagues must do whatever it takes to obtain vital information and prevent disaster. Trading the alternate history of The Only Thing to Fear for historical fiction set in our world, Richmond delivers a pulse-pounding page-turner featuring an unremittingly tense atmosphere and resourceful, fearless heroines who repeatedly defy death. However, that same tension results in a lack of emotional downtime, and the second half of the story feels rushed and underexplored, as Lucie attempts to escape back to England after being captured. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Darkest Hour"Rife with action and intrigue, this work explores a little-known history of women in World War II. The novel passes the Bechdel test with flying colors . . ." —School Library Journal"Thrills, action, and the moral certainty of fighting Nazis drive this thriller." —Kirkus ReviewsPraise for The Only Thing to Fear"Richmond makes an impressive debut with this alternate history . . . She twists history and throws in creative exploitation of superpowers to deliver a fast-paced adventure." —Publishers Weekly "Reminiscent of series like The Hunger Game and Divergent, but the alternative-history angle adds a spark of its own." —Booklist"An outstanding debut that will thrill readers of all ages."—SciFiPulse.net"The Only Thing to Fear can be summed up in two words: realistically frightening . . . This heart-stopping novel goes to the extremes of what could have been and what may have been done." —TeenReads.com"The plot is fast-paced and will appeal to both historical fiction and science fiction readers." —Library Media Connection

From the Publisher

06/01/2016
Gr 8 Up—Following the loss of her brother on the African front in World War II, American Lucie Blaise joins a covert operations group in France. Tasked with unspeakable acts of espionage, Lucie and a cadre of other fearless women work tirelessly for the Allies. When a young Austrian comes forward with information about sinister Nazi plans, Lucie and her comrades in arms must decide whether to trust him and act on what could be a disastrous turning point in the war. Rife with action and intrigue, this work explores a little-known history of women in World War II. The novel passes the Bechdel test with flying colors as the two protagonists and occasional rivals escape Nazis on trains, down alleyways, and through the countryside. While the narrative takes a turn for the outlandish as the book progresses, Richmond makes clear in her author's note that the stories she is illuminating were no less than extraordinary. VERDICT Fast-paced and fascinating, this book is sure to please readers in search of a historical adventure.—Erinn Black Salge, Saint Peter's Prep, Jersey City, NJ

School Library Journal

2016-03-30
A girl spy in Nazi-occupied France contends with a dastardly Nazi plot as well as treason within the Allied ranks.Sixteen-year-old Lucie, heartbroken at her beloved brother's death in action, sneaks away from home to join the Women's Army Corps. The French-speaking, white Baltimore native is promptly (if implausibly) recruited into Covert Ops, an all-female espionage division. Though tops in her class during training, Lucie struggles in the field, where the job of killing her targets after extracting all necessary information makes her too squeamish to excel. Perhaps she can please her irritable commander with her few extracted rumors of the dreadful and mysterious Operation Zerfall. Before Lucie learns anything further, Covert Ops dissolves into chaos. Despite her junior status, Lucie's sent to interrogate a defecting Nazi—about Operation Zerfall. A cinematic combat sequence later (evoking more Kill Bill than another girl-spies-in-occupied-France novel, Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity, 2012), and Lucie has all the information Covert Ops needs. But trusting the wrong person drags Lucie into a dire situation that could turn the tide of the war for Germany. Characterization is thin, but secondary characters of color provide authentic diversity. The drama builds through interrogations, explosions, shoe daggers, and Nazi mad science; the entertaining, historically genuine (though often inaccurately depicted) James Bond gadgets and weapons keep pages turning.Thrills, action, and the moral certainty of fighting Nazis drive this thriller. (Historical thriller. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews