Summary

In the aftermath of the raid on the Marseille safehouse, the SOE offices in Britain were desperate for information, and to rebuild their networks in France. Virginia struggled to do exactly that, finding it difficult to do so in part because those involved in the emerging French Resistance were reluctant to take orders from the British – particularly since those orders were being passed on by an American.

Eventually and carefully, Virginia built a strong, careful network of French allies, each with different skills and with different styles of making connections and subverting the Nazis, but all determined to see France freed. Among the more influential was the brothel owner Germaine Guerin, who used her connections with the Nazis who utilized the services of the girls in her charge to a variety of benefits (the author quotes Virginia referring to these girls as...