My mom recommended
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell, so I got it on audiobook. The book description says, "In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: 'She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.' The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war."
This was a pretty amazing, true story! I loved Virginia and how brave and persistent she was and the amazing things she was able to do that no one else could (like the networks she created). Her ability to do hard things (like climb a mountain with a prosthetic leg) was so inspiring. The only downside of this book for me was that I listened to it on audiobook, and there were a lot of French names that were hard for me to keep track of when only hearing them (not reading them). I think that made it so I missed some side characters and couldn't keep track of side stories as well as I would have otherwise. But overall it was a really neat story.
Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)
