Tamar is the story of two Dutch SOE agents, trained by the British, being parachuted back into Holland to assist with the Dutch Resistance in the Second World War. They always operate in code names; Dart and Tamar. The first hundred pages revolve around them going about their business and just getting settled in. It starts slowly but after page 100 the narrative completely changes to fifty years in the future, to 1995 with a fifteen year-old girl talking about her troubled grandparents. When her grandfather commits suicide, she is left a series of clues to the mysterious happenings from his youth in the Second World War.

As the plot progresses, the narrative changes get more frequent, the story gets faster and the bloodshed increases until you finally reach an ending, albeit a very confusing one.

The book is around 430 pages long and I must say it was a very satisfying feeling knowing I’d finished it. This book is a frustratingly slow starter, but does get more interesting around page 100. Once it does get going it is a much better story, and I found it harder to put down. The description is good, the characterisation is convincing and on the whole, it’s very well written. However, I would recommend this book only to a very patient reader.

This book is too long, and too slow, but it’s well written, therefore, I’d give it 6/10.