Excerpt From Chapter 1 'How Angels Die,' Claire References Pill Boxes -

“Those beaches had been wondrous playgrounds when Claire was younger. They had been the world’s biggest sandbox for her, her sister Monique, and their many friends. Claire had chased and been chased by her only sibling up and down and around and around that sand for what must have seemed endless hours for their mother and father. But those wondrous days were long removed from Claire’s city now. Even on warm, bright days such as this, the beaches were empty except for the concrete pill boxes of the German machine gun nests and miles of barbed wire that stretched along the shore. The beach-goers had long since been driven away, underground or into reluctant servitude.”