About a Book – Madame Rebelle – Karen J. Mossman

Introducing Amber Leigh Williams

Where did the idea for the story come from?

I’ve been writing this story in the back of my mind for years. After I read A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead about 230 Frenchwomen who resisted the German occupation, I felt increasingly compelled to write Madame Rebelle. While my characters are fictional, they reflect the incredible bravery and sacrifice of everyday citizens of the time.

Give a quote from the books, one that says little but speaks volumes.

“Rebellions are like the tracks of a train. The train can’t pass over the tracks until every spike is driven in and every joint is riveted. It only takes one train, Edmée, to change the nature of this war.”

Give a short summary of what the book is about.

Without giving anything away, Madame Rebelle is a story of courage and survival as well as what it takes to do the right thing when the world is falling apart. Edmee Guillon, aka Madame Rebelle, is a rebel, smuggler and spy for the French resistance fighting to save as many people as she can from the Nazi regime while masquerading as an ordinary citizen. The secrets, lies and betrayal of those around her, however, will challenge her belief in right and wrong, especially when an enigmatic man in a stolen German uniform seeks her help and she suspects he isn’t at all what he seems.

What genre is it?

Madame Rebelle is a work of historical fiction. It contains elements of suspense and romance.

How many pages is it?

295 pages

Why do you think the readers will want to read it?

This book takes place in 1943 France. The picturesque setting has been rocked by war. There’s wartime intrigue, danger and suspense on every page, the constant threat of betrayal, and romance sprinkled throughout. In truth, there’s something for everyone in Madame Rebelle.

Where are you located?

I live on the Gulf Coast where summers are hot, winters are rainy, and any other time of the year is just perfect. My home is close to the white sand beaches of Alabama where I enjoyfishing and boating with my family.

Description

Rebel. Smuggler. Spy.

Champagne, France 1943

Meet Madame Rebelle. Edmee Guillon is a smuggler. She hides people from the German troops surrounding her ancestral home. When a dying man in a German uniform seeks refuge at Maison Boutet, Edmee struggles to believe his claims that he is French. Her life, the maison and the people she loves are already at stake. Can she take the chance that this mysterious spy is who he says he is? And which side of this war is he really on?

Christian Vovk has been betrayed by someone inside his resistance organization. He knows asking the striking young war widow to hide him will put her in certain danger. However, Christian can help Edmee save as many refugees as she can. Falling in love with her will hinder his duty to the operation that brought him to her doorstep in the first place. When love and duty become inevitably tangled, will Christian sacrifice one for the other?

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Excerpt

“Go home, Edmee. Do not come back to this part of the woods.”

As the soldier moved away, Edmee could not believe it. They…were letting her go?

Just like that?

Her feet tripped over one another as she moved into the trees. That escape was far easier than it should have been. The soldiers hadn’t asked to search her bags. They hadn’t asked what she was doing in the woods in the dark after curfew.

They’d only asked her name.

It made no sense.

She fled, her hands locked around the handles of the suitcases filled with contraband.

She didn’t risk taking her usual path back to Maison Boutet. She weaved and wandered for a while through brambles that caught her clothes and mud that sucked at the bottoms of her boots.

It felt like minutes…or maybe hours before she was back at her uncle’s vineyard.

The cases dangled weightily at the ends of her arms. Her knuckles had been white around them for so long, she could no longer feel them.

The maison was so dark, she failed to distinguish it from the landscape.

She looked at her muddy shoes, her trousers soaked past the ankles. The suitcases would have to be hidden, half of the contents destroyed.

She rushed into the heart of the rows. Her beacon was now the limestone mound with its rough-hewn back to the sky, the entrance to the hidden network of caves underneath the estate.

She wedged past the rocky entrance and stumbled down the steps toward the light below.

At the bottom, the barrel of a pistol greeted her.

Her heart slammed into her ribs. Her knees threatened to fold.

She gaped at the man behind the gun.

Christian’s face was red and sweat-sheened. In the lantern’s low throbbing light, his features looked harsh. Moisture cloaked his bare chest like a second skin.

She’d searched him – his clothes, his personal effects… How did he get a gun?

Her lips trembled. She lifted her chin, regardless. The words were rough against her throat. “Are you going to shoot me?”