📖 Blog Tour ~ The Resistance Knitting Club by Jenny O’Brien

Storm
6 February 2026
Threads of Resistence #1

My thanks for the copy of the book
and invitation to the blog tour

Inspired by the true story of a woman who used knitting patterns to encode intelligence during World War Two.

Guernsey, 2010. After a stroke, an elderly woman shocks her family by speaking perfect French – a language they never knew she possessed. As her granddaughter unravels seventy years of silence, a hidden wartime story emerges...

Paris, 1941. After her brother is declared missing in action at Dunkirk, eighteen-year-old Lenny Gallienne vanishes into Churchill’s secret army. In a bookshop on Rue de la Pompe, she poses as a simple shop girl while encoding intelligence from Nazi headquarters into knitting patterns. Each sweater smuggled to prisoners contains flight paths. Each scarf holds radio frequencies. Each mistake means execution.

Fellow agent, Harry Dennison, is the only person who knows her real name. But when the Gestapo close in, Lenny faces an impossible choice in the Metro tunnels beneath Paris – one that will haunt her family for generations. Because in the resistance, the most dangerous secrets are the ones you keep from those you love most.

📖 My Review..

Seventy years of silence means that Leonora (Lenny) Galliene’s wartime secrets have never been revealed especially to her family who, after Lenny’s sudden illness, are surprised to realise that she can speak fluent French. During the momentous years of WW2 Lenny led a dangerous clandestine life as a special agent and over the course of the novel we discover just what happened to her during her time in occupied Paris. A skilled knitter, Lenny discovers an ingenuous way to incorporate pieces of code into her knitted garments which allows vital pieces of information to be passed in a seemingly innocent way. 

Based on a true story this is an interesting slant on the wartime resistance theme and as a knitter I was fascinated by the use of knitting to pass on messages as I hadn’t heard of this before but could well imagine how it was accomplished. I think the author has tackled this difficult subject well and successfully combines wartime history alongside an emotional romance story. The characters throughout were well described and there was enough tension and jeopardy in the plot to give the story its momentum. 

The first book in a new series, The Resistance Knitting Club  certainly gets the series off to a good start. 

☕️ Best read with : A cup of tea and a plate of treacle scones 

About the Author

Jenny O’Brien writes complex thrillers and heartbreaking historical fiction, as well as intriguing romances. Silent Cry, initially self published, topped the Amazon kindle chart in both the UK and the USA. Most of her books have followed suit. Jenny has over 40 years experience as a qualified nurse. She turned to creative writing as a hobby when her children were born. Born in Ireland, she now lives in Guernsey with her husband and children.

BOOK NEWS

The Resistance Knitting Club comes out in February, 2026. A blend of Jenny’s two hobbies - knitting and reading. For more check out The Resistance Knitting Club Facebook Page. Join the conversation as well as share your crafting projects.

​Follow on social media 

Twitter and Instagram @scribblerjb

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennyOBrienWriter/

📖 Blog Tour ~ The Puppet Maker by Jenny O'Brien

 

Storm
17 October 2023

Detective Alana Mack #1

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book
 and to Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation to the blog tour

The scrap of paper looked as if it had been torn from a diary. The words written in faint pencil. The letters rounded, almost childlike: Please look after her. Her life and mine depend on you not trying to find me.

When Detective Alana Mack arrives at Clonabee police station, in a small Irish seaside town on the outskirts of Dublin, she doesn't expect to find a distressed two-year-old girl sobbing on the floor. Abandoned in a local supermarket, the child tells them her name is Casey. All Alana and her team have to go on is a crumpled note begging for someone to look after her little girl. This mother doesn't want to be found.

Still recovering from a terrible accident that has left Alana navigating a new life as a wheelchair user, Alana finds herself suddenly responsible for Casey while trying to track down the missing mother and solve another missing person's case… a retired newsagent who has seemingly vanished from his home.

Forced to ask her ex-husband and child psychiatrist Colm for help, through Forensic Art Therapy, Alana discovers that whatever darkness lies behind the black windows in Casey's crayon drawing, the little girl was terrified of the house she lived in.

Then a bag of human remains is found in a bin, and a chilling link is made – the DNA matches Casey's.

Alana and her team must find the body and make the connection with the missing newsagent fast if she is to prevent another life from being taken. But with someone in her department leaking confidential details of the investigation to the media, can Alana set aside her emotional involvement in this case and find Casey’s mother and the killer before it's too late?

Heart-pounding and totally addictive, The Puppet Maker is the first in the Detective Alana Mack series that will have fans of Ann Cleeves, Angela Marsons and LJ Ross racing through the pages late into the night.

📖 My Review..

This first book in the series hits the ground running and introduces a new investigator on the scene, namely Alana Mack, who is a detective in the small Irish seaside town of Clonabee. Alana is still coming to terms with the after effects of an accident which has confined her to a wheelchair. Alana does not see this as a disability and is determined to be unfazed by anything that comes her way but when a missing person case suddenly becomes much more complicated, Alana and her team of detectives are set a difficult challenge to find out just what evil is afoot in this sleepy seaside town.

I thought this was a good thought out mystery which had everything I wanted to find in a psychological thriller. At the centre there’s a genuinely heart breaking story line concerning an abandoned two year girl and as the alternative chapters are narrated by Alana and the girl’s mother we get an interesting perspective on what is happening. Add a series of mysterious disappearances into the mix and pretty soon the story is awash with spills and thrills, twists and turns, all of which kept me guessing and I enjoyed trying to put together all the pieces of this complex puzzle.

As this is the first book in a new series involving Detective Alana Mack, we didn’t get to know absolutely everything about her in this first novel and I enjoy the anticipation of discovering more about the whole investigative team as the series progresses.  The Puppet Maker, whilst quite dark in places, is an enjoyable crime thriller which kept my attention from first page to last.

About the Author

Born in Dublin, Jenny O'Brien moved to Wales and then Guernsey, where she tries to find time to write in between working as a nurse and ferrying around 3 teenagers.

In her spare time she can be found frowning at her wonky cakes and even wonkier breads. You'll be pleased to note she won't be entering Bake-Off. She's also an all-year-round sea swimmer.

Twitter @ScribblerJB #ThePuppetMaker

Blog Instagram

@StormBooks_co

@rararesources