Five Quarters of the Orange, Joanne Harris

"Five Quarters of the Orange" is the story of Frambroise and her siblings Reine-Claude and Cassis -- children of a migraine-suffering mother and a killed-in-action soldier. During World War II the three children turn informant on their tiny French village, trading secrets for candy and fishing tackle. As their relationship with their mother deterioriates, so does the situation with the Germans stationed nearby. Harris folds the story of Frambroise's childhood into what's happening years later as Frambroise tries to run a small restaurant in the village under a different name. Harris' writing, as always, makes your mouth water and your nose twitch as the children put down buckwheat pancakes and saucissson. The plot moves forward at a good pace, and the characters are interesting, if not believable. I have one major complaint about the book -- and that has to do with the building of suspense. Harris spends more than 250 pages building toward the childhood and adult climax, promising to reveal a terrible secret when the denouement is finally reached. Sadly, I found both secret and crisis less than they had built up to be, which lessened the overall impact of the book.