Synopsis
A biography of one of the most successful spies in World War II tells how she used international, high-ranking trysts to pry top-secret information from the enemy and put it into the hands of Allied forces. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.
Reviews
Women spies--often notoriously glamorous and driven as much by the thrills as the cause--have customarily used seduction to get what they want. Betty Pack, the subject of this latest biography by Lovell (The Sound of Wings, 1989; Straight on Till Morning, 1987), was a typical woman spy. Not so typical, though, was the significance of her accomplishment. Acknowledged as responsible for providing some of the most important British communications intelligence of WW II, the American-born Pack was a woman ``who took life as she found it, happily meeting challenge after challenge head-on, no matter what the consequences of the collision.'' Described as the most beautiful debutante of the Washington season, she was married at 19 to Arthur Pack, a British diplomat who had impregnated her. The child's birth was kept a secret for many years as Pack, a ``dreadful parent,'' let her son be reared by a foster family in England. Her espionage activities began while stationed in Civil War Spain and continued when her husband was transferred to Poland, where she seduced a top-ranking Pole from whom she learned details of the German Enigma code-machine. Her most significant triumphs, though, came in Washington. There, she seduced and turned an Italian admiral, as well as a Vichy French diplomat from whom she obtained ciphers that gave the Allies vital information about enemy movements. Loyal but unreflective, Pack had methods that were daring and unorthodox--her after-hours nude appearance at the French Embassy so stunned a suspicious nightwatchman that he fled, facilitating the opening of the safe holding the ciphers. Pack's life in France after the war was poignantly anticlimactic; she began writing her memoirs, but died in 1963 from cancer before they were complete. Solid research and tribute paid where due, though Pack, despite all the glamorous and daring things she did, and despite Lovell's best efforts, never quite comes alive here. Disappointing. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
An entertaining biography that reads like a novel, this is the story of a real-life spy heroine, Pack, a diplomat's wife who was one of Britain's most successful spies during World War II. Relying upon her charm, intelligence, and connections in the diplomatic world, she met and became the lover of diplomats and other officials, from whom she obtained vital secrets in a dangerous and exciting game of espionage. The author has thoroughly researched and carefully documented her subject, presenting the story of Pack in all of its dimensions, revealing in the process a woman who led a flawed but fascinating life. This carefully crafted, well-written, and readable book should appeal to a variety of readers, from World War II buffs to intrigue aficionados. Lovell is the author of two other skillful biographies of interesting women, Straight on Till Morning: The Biography of Beryl Markham ( LJ 9/15/87) and The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart ( LJ 10/15/89). Libraries that purchasesd these will want this one too.
- Barbara Walden, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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