The Mapmaker
Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes & NoblePublished by: Knox Press
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Pages: 352
ISBN13: 979-8895651247
Overview
Resistance fighters Charlotte and Philippe, an American woman and a Frenchman, brave death or worse to evade the Gestapo and get critical information to the Allies.
Resistance operative Charlotte Denneau has critical targeting information for the Allies, and the Gestapo knows it. On the run across occupied France, she must prioritize her mission over the lives of the agents and civilians she needs to help her escape. Germans are taking down Resistance networks with disastrous results. Agents are being arrested, tortured, questioned, and turned. Charlotte never knows whom to trust. She communicates in coded radio calls to London, with the enemy always listening. More than anything, she needs a flight out—before the Nazis drag her to an interrogation chamber.
Philippe Gerard, a French pilot who joined the British Royal Air Force after the fall of France, faces an impossible mission: He must find Charlotte, land by moonlight to pick her up in a farmer’s field, and evade Luftwaffe fighters on the way back to England. But where is she? If he gets an all-clear signal over a dark pasture, is she really there? Or does the signal lure him into a trap?
In the critical weeks before D-Day, every contribution counts: A well-drawn map, a timely aerial photo, or a daring landing in a muddy field might make the difference between triumph and defeat. Inspired by real-life events from World War II, The Mapmaker demonstrates how individual courage and sacrifice can set the stage for victory.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Philippe Gerard
Summer, 1943
For Lieutenant Philippe Gerard, a permanent darkness cloaked France. He saw his Nazi-occupied homeland only at night, when he flew his Westland Lysander into clandestine airstrips on missions for the British Royal Air Force.
The last flush of daylight faded from the ramp at RAF Tangmere in West Sussex as Philippe ran up his engine for another sortie. He checked his propeller RPM and oil pressure. Wondered whether tonight would be the night he didn’t make it back.
He hoped so. Death in combat could clear his name.