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gray5217's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
gh7's review
4.0
An utterly compelling read about Vera Atkins and the female SOE agents she helped send to France. Especially moving is her relentless attempt at the end of the war to discover what happened to those agents who had vanished from all official records. At this point the book becomes a gripping detective story. There's also the mystery of Vera herself, a fascinating woman who gave so little of herself away and destroyed many of her documents. So this fabulously well written and researched book contains mysteries within mysteries within mysteries. If you want a true idea of what these brave women went through I'd definitely recommend this rather than much of the romanticised and patronising fiction written on the subject.
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review
5.0
Engrossing book.
Re-read. There is quite a bit in here about how to do research and about conflicts that we have with our heroes. It really is an entertaing book about a quest, more than a biography.
Re-read. There is quite a bit in here about how to do research and about conflicts that we have with our heroes. It really is an entertaing book about a quest, more than a biography.
txbookmama's review
3.0
Pieces of this book about British female spies working in France during WWII (mostly captured) were interesting and heartbreaking. But there was an awful lot of minutia to slog through around those, and the central character (Ms. Atkins) is not really all that likeable.
Kindle edition needs a much better copy editor, there were so many errors in punctuation / structure that would be relatively quick fixes with a couple of hours' worth of work.
Kindle edition needs a much better copy editor, there were so many errors in punctuation / structure that would be relatively quick fixes with a couple of hours' worth of work.
jasper's review
5.0
An excellent book to read after Spymistress. I kind of feel like puking, but I have learned to take that as a sign of a great book when it comes to this time period. Miss Atkins is one of the most fascinating people I've come across in my research.
jules_cr's review
3.0
This book is part SOE (English intelligence branch during WW2) mystery, part biography and part travelogue. No doubt Vera Atkins née Rosenberg was a fascinating and talented woman, and the writing of the book was made more difficult by Vera's destruction of her personal records and guarded history. That said, it lacked some coherent narrative and details- I almost feel like I know Noor Inayat Khan better than Vera. it definitely felt like Noor/Nora's story is the one the author really wanted to tell. It is an interesting choice to structure the book through the author's journey of understanding Vera and the SOE but some of the end details and resources seemed like they could've been more interesting and further illuminated the contradictions and secrecy that Vera lived with.