Trial and Tribulation

Now available in audiobook:

Trial and Tribulation

Trial and Tribulation

Book 4

It is 1943. In the skies above war-torn Europe a savage battle continues as Allied bomber crews rain down fire and destruction on Hitler’s cities, and Luftwaffe fighters tear the bombers to pieces. Faced with the destruction, Churchill asks, “Are we barbarians?”

Back in England, after the Siege of Malta and continents away from her estranged husband, fighter pilot Johnnie Shaux, strategic military analyst Eleanor Shaux is ordered to develop plans for the systematic destruction of Hitler’s wartime economy. To do so, she must navigate the quicksand of Allied politics and face the relentless male chauvinism of the bureaucratic and military establishments on both sides of the Atlantic—not to mention battling with the qualms of her own conscience.

Meanwhile decorated air combat hero Johnnie Shaux is at work developing ways to make Allied bombing more effective. He’s a survivor in a war in which very few survive, where casualty rates are sixty percent, and the only rule is “kill or be killed.” But he is finding it harder to view enemy soldiers as worthy of killing. When Eleanor discovers that Johnnie is back in England and is flying one last horribly dangerous mission—a mission she recommended—she rushes to await him. Will he survive? If he dies, can she live with her complicity in developing the mission he flew?

In the fourth book of the award-winning Breaking Point series, John Rhodes weaves the fictional story of fighter pilot Johnnie Shaux and military strategist Eleanor Shaux into the heartbreaking, inspiring historical fabric of World War II.

Finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award for Military Fiction

Praise

“A smart and gripping portrait of the many facets of conflict . . . This is a clever novel that ably moves between the politics of Whitehall and the white-knuckle ride of aerial combat while also offering an unconventional love story. Rhodes’s enviable knowledge of military history successfully keeps the narrative moving.”
Kirkus Reviews
“The latest entry in the Breaking Point series by John Rhodes is a real page-turner and a must read for people who enjoy World War II historical fiction. The book . . . is tightly written and moves at a brisk, satisfying pace. Rhodes is a master of weaving fictional characters into the fabric of true historical events. His characters have depth and nuance.”
—Robert Kofman, author of Ike’s Journey
“His scholarship is impeccable, but he wears it lightly. His prose moves as fast as a Spitfire in pursuit, and his characters speak like real human beings. Imagine a Herman Wouk or a James Michener who didn’t run on for seven hundred pages or more.”
—Ben Steelman, Star News Online
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