Choice Review

When readers envision women in espionage, the first person who usually comes to mind is Mata Hari. However, women have played a far greater part in intelligence. Fry, a prolific historian of British intelligence, demonstrates that in her new book. She chronicles the women involved in intelligence operations ranging from collection to codebreaking and how they contributed to an Allied victory in both WW I and WW II. Most of the material Fry unearthed was buried in the Public Record Office in the UK, not intended to be seen in our lifetime. Similarly, the women in British intelligence during WW II often took their successes to the grave. Only when family members combed through family heirlooms did they discover these women's achievements in defeating Hitler and the Nazis. Rarely known to the public were those courageous women who parachuted into occupied France to work with the resistance or to deceive Axis agents in neutral capitals as double agents in the shadow war. Even Winston Churchill's daughter Sarah did her part during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. Women in Intelligence is a major achievement in intelligence studies. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. --Christopher C. Lovett, Emporia State University