From Ben Macintyre, Number One bestselling author of Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, comes a new true story of Second World War deception
Ben Macintyre is a columnist and Associate Editor on The Times. He has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He is the author of eight previous books including Agent Zigzag, shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and the Galaxy British Book Award for Biography of the Year 2008, and the no. 1 bestseller Operation Mincemeat. He lives in London with his wife and three children.
Macintyre pulls together countless strands better than anybody
hitherto, with an enthusiasm that prompts the reader to leap from
page to page ... I have seldom enjoyed a spy story more than this
one, and fiction will make dreary reading hereafter
*Max Hastings, Sunday Times*
Ben Macintyre has excelled himself ... an utterly gripping story.
One can finish the book with the strangely proud sensation that in
the Second World War perfidious Albion played the Great Game
remarkably well
*Antony Beevor, Daily Telegraph*
If you thought Antony Beevor's D-Day couldn't be bettered: [here
is] the amazing story of the madcap spy network that bamboozled the
Germans in the build-up to invasion
*Mail on Sunday*
Enjoyable and engrossing ... For all its splendidly weird ploys and
feints, Macintyre's book culminates in a stirring account of
old-fashioned courage
*Boyd Tonkin, Independent*
Immensely satisfying ... Times columnist Macintyre has done his
homework thoroughly and sketches out the characters of the double
agents and their spymasters with sympathy and not a little humour
... in its own way it is as true a portrait of the war as Beevor's
epic
*Oliver Moody, The Times*
Enthralling ... Macintyre is a master at leading the reader down
some very tortuous paths while ensuring they never lose their
bearings ... a book so gripping that I even found myself reading it
in lifts
*Evening Standard*
Exquisite entertainment
*Andro Linklater, Spectator*
***** Crammed with anecdotes that will leave you laughing in
disbelief ... an astonishing story of Britain's fake Nazi spies
*Metro*
Highly entertaining ... Macintyre is a first-class narrative
historian and Double Cross is as pacy as a thriller and better
written than most
*Sunday Telegraph*
***** Fascinating
*Daily Express*
A meticulous, thrilling account of the double bluff that paved the
way for D-Day ... unfettered in the pages of history that read like
the best adventure fiction, he becomes positively exuberant ...
utterly gripping
*The Times*
**** Grippingly enjoyable
*Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday*
**** No one does cloak-and-gun history better; Macintyre mixes a
professor's research with a journalist's eye for a good story and a
forensic scientist's ability to spot the absurdities of war
*Sunday Express*
Entertaining
*Guardian*
"Any method of seeking the truth can also be used to plant a lie." Therein lies the root of the brilliantly dangerous Allied plan (which MI5 called Double Cross)-recounted by Macintyre with the same skill and suspense he displayed in Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag-to throw off the Germans and launch an assault at Normandy on June 6, 1944. The key to the plan-convincing Germany that the impending attack would come either at Pas de Calais or in Norway-was the careful manipulation of five double agents, each feeding misinformation back to their German handlers. Polish zealot Roman Czerniawski volunteered his services to his German captors, only to defect to Britain and become "Agent Brutus." Serbian playboy Dusan Popov ("Agent Tricycle") became one of MI5's most prized assets. Failed Catalan chicken farmer Juan Pujol ("Agent Garbo") badgered both German and British intelligence services into accepting him, eventually becoming the linchpin of the D-Day ploy. Lily Sergeyev ("Agent Treasure"), a high-strung Frenchwoman, had the opportunity to blow the whole operation with a single punctuation mark, while Elvira de la Fuente Chaudoir ("Agent Bronx") transformed from a gambling Peruvian society girl to solid double agent. Macintyre effortlessly weaves the agents' deliciously eccentric personalities with larger wartime events to shape a tale that reads like a top-notch spy thriller. Photos, map. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Macintyre recounts the fascinating story of the Allied spy team that saved thousands of lives by successfully deceiving the Germans into thinking the D-Day invasion would happen in Calais and Norway instead of Normandy. Macintyre smartly focuses his attention on the key personalities who risked their lives, including a variety of British MI5 spies, double agents inside Nazi intelligence, and the primary agents-a Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, an eccentric Spaniard with a diploma in chicken farming, and a volatile Frenchwoman. Hollywood probably could not make up more odd, memorable characters. Unfortunately, playwright and actor John Lee's otherwise solid reading is sadly marred by the unnecessary effort to emulate the different accents of the multiethnic operatives as he conveys their comments in stilted, broken English, which only makes the characters sound like caricatures. VERDICT The strength of the story still will make this offering alluring to history lovers, especially the numerous devotees of all things World War II. ["Macintyre's book will appeal to general readers and espionage buffs who love.true spy stories," read the review of the New York Times best-selling Crown hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 7/20/12.-Ed.]-Dale Farris, Groves, TX (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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