V2 is a historical fiction account of a phase of the V2 missile attacks on London in 1944.   The story is told from the point of view of a German scientist, Dr. Rudi Graf and a WAAC officer Kay Caton-Walsh.   Graf is a ficntional character who worked on the rocket program with Wernher Von Braun over a long period of time and is now stationed in Belgium, overseeing the launch of  missiles across the English Chnnel to  London.   He is not a Nazi nor a soldier; he is a complex character who has conflicted feelings of loyalty and purpose while surrounded by the horrors of war.   The chapters dedicated to Graf are the best in a strong story.    The tale switches back and forth between the German scientist and the English counter-intelligence officer, Kay.   She works on quickly determining the location of launched missiles using mathematical equations and a slide rule to work backwards from the data provided by radar to extend the parabola to a probable location.

The most interesting parts of the book are the workings of the V2 rockets, the historical development of the program, and the English defense against the attacks.   The rockets were unreliable at launch and not very accurate.    The counter-intelliegence to find the launch sites was also not very prcise.   The V2 threat was mostly ended by the overall outcome of the war, not by success from either side.   The irony is that Werner von Braun and his team escaped then migrated to the USA to work on its rocket program in New Mexico.

In V2, Harris does his usual magic of combing historical record with scholarly research and working those details into a fictional story that works as a well-told tale.   Recommended – 4.5 out of 5.0 stars4.5

This is my third Robert Harris novel – An Officer and a Spy and Fatherland are also excellent books.

An audiobook excerpt: