The Wolves at the Door
The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
This WWII espionage biography brings "one of America's greatest spies back to life” in a “story of derring-do and white knuckles suspense” (Patrick O'Donnell, author of Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs)
Virginia Hall left her comfortable Baltimore roots in 1931 with dreams of becoming a Foreign Service Officer, but her gender—and her wooden leg—kept her from pursuing politics. As Hitler advanced across Europe, she put her gift for languages to use with the British Special Operations Executive, a secret espionage organization. She was soon deployed to occupied France where she located drop zones, helped prisoners of war flee to England, and secured safe houses for agents.
Soon, wanted posters appeared throughout France, offering a reward for Hall’s capture. By 1942, Hall had to flee France via the only route possible: an arduous hike on foot through the frozen Pyrénées Mountains. Upon her return to England, the American espionage organization, the Office of Special Services, recruited her and sent her back to France disguised as an old peasant woman. While there, she was responsible for killing 150 German soldiers and capturing 500 others. Sabotaging communications and directing resistance activities, her brave work helped change the course of the war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Although Pearson's chronology wobbles early on and her prose is less than elegant, her account of Virginia Hall's work as a secret agent in German-occupied France is nevertheless riveting, thanks to the inherent drama of the time. Gifted with languages, Hall sought a career in Foreign Service in 1930s Europe, but a physical handicap (she had one wooden leg), her gender and her outspoken political views stymied her diplomatic ambitions. She escaped to London shortly after Germany's 1940 invasion of France and came to the attention of a secret British intelligence group that trained her in non-traditional sabotage techniques, cryptology and radio communication. As a newly minted secret agent, she returned to France, where she passed on information about German positions, transported downed Allied pilots and escaped prisoners to safety, oversaw the retrieval of supply drops and organized resistance fighters. Hall's espionage career ended with the allied victory and the dawn of the cold war, for which the CIA wanted a different breed of agent. Though commendable for its portrayal of Hall's unflagging courage and energy in dangerous and desperate conditions, the story is told in bland prose that fails to live up to the exceptional times it chronicles.
