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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Massawa by Pam Webber is set in 1942, when Kit Thomas leaves Washington for Eritrea as an OSS courier under Navy cover. American payroll money for civilian laborers at the naval base in Massawa has vanished, and serial numbers from that cash have surfaced through a Cairo bank linked to the Nazis. Kit’s route takes her from the Asmara offices to the Red Sea coast, where Commander Edward Ellsberg is trying to keep the base open for Allied shipping as Rommel presses toward Egypt. With MI agent Mark Williams stationed nearby, Kit observes a contractor, Jacque Dumas, while suspicious movement near Arafali Bay points toward a hidden route out of Eritrea. A missing payroll soon looks like one piece of a Vichy money route feeding a war that has no business being funded.
Pam Webber’s Massawa is brilliant wartime historical fiction, and proves how much a spy story benefits when the setting feels lived in. The period details are exceptional, and everything that the author incorporates is intentional. One thing that stood out is the collective agency angle, portrayed through unpaid Eritrean laborers deciding whether Ellsberg’s base keeps repairing ships or not. It's one of those scenes that breathes life into the actual people, and it's a testament to Webber's skill as a writer. As for settings, the author has readers right on the mountain road from Asmara, where cloud forest drops toward desert heat. The best part is Kit. I love a female intelligence protagonist who knows how to study a room before moving, and her fieldcraft is always in play. Micah, the Eritrean driver who knows every mile to Massawa, is wonderful too. Well written and absorbing, readers who enjoy wartime espionage fiction will absolutely adore this book. Very highly recommended.
