The Tower at Petite Vigne

A small French village is drawn into WWII when it's chosen to be the location of a German antiaircraft installation in the run-up to D-Day. The arrival of a German construction crew under the leadership of Franz Duggendorf forces the local mayor and priest to mediate between the Germans%E2%80%94who are requisitioning material and labor%E2%80%94and the unhappy villagers. In his attempts to maintain a workable relationship with the French, Duggendorf raises the suspicions of fellow Nazis as friction increases between occupiers and occupied and between competing village resistance groups. Stone's competent but flat novel benefits greatly from the author's accurate depiction of occupied France and rendering of the tensions within the Third Reich and between the Nazis and villagers. However, Stone's narrative shifts between too many thinly drawn supporting characters, and this dilutes the urgency of an inherently dramatic situation, making it difficult for readers to engage emotionally with the book.