***A New York Times bestseller*** 'A rousing tale of derring-do' The Times Book of the Week
'A cracking story about an extraordinarily brave woman' Telegraph Best Holiday Beach Reads 'As
riveting as any thriller and as hard to put down' Mick Herron New York Times 'Gripping ...
superb ... a rounded portrait of a complicated resourceful determined and above all brave
woman' Irish Times In 1942 the Gestapo would stop at nothing to track down a mysterious
'limping lady' who was fighting for the freedom of France. The Nazi chiefs issued a simple but
urgent command: 'She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.'
The Gestapo's target was Virginia Hall a glamorous American with a wooden leg who broke
through the barriers against her gender and disability to be the first woman to infiltrate
Vichy France for the SOE. In so doing she helped turn the course of the intelligence war. This
is the epic tale of an heiress who determined that a hunting accident would not define her
existence a young woman who gambled her life to fight for the freedoms she believed in an
espionage novice who helped to light the flame of French Resistance. 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. An Amazon.com Book of the Month * USA Today 5 Must Reads *
New York Times Editors Pick
