Name: The Secret Stealers
ISBN: 9781542023559

Jane Healey

When she is recruited into the Office of Strategic Services by a family friend and legendary WWI hero, young widow and brilliant French teacher Anna Cavanaugh risks everything to help liberate France from the shadows of occupation and free herself from the shadows of her former life.

A Novel

The Secret Stealers

Mary Baldwin

If someone described to me, a book set in WW2 I might be hesitant. But talk to me about a book based in wartime; set in America, London and France where the role of women in the war effort is applauded. Then yes I’m sold.

I have a soft spot for anything relating to spies or secret services, and although I said a wartime setting might put me off, when that setting is so absorbing and well researched, I’m a fan. 

Anna is American, recently widowed and realising that the life she would have had living in the shadow of her husband is not the one she wanted.

She’s bright, impatient, kind and loyal; and well respected as a gifted French teacher at a local school.

The book follows Anna as she finds new purpose as an American Spy in Nazi occupied Paris. Along the way there are strong themes of friendship, romance, passion and sadness.

Descriptions of the efforts that Anna and her companions make in the most challenging of circumstances are so vivid. The book paints a clear picture; not only of the polarisation of Paris under Nazi occupation, but of how the view of women at the time began to turn around through the courage of people like Anna. 

The author does an excellent job of not shying away from the heartbreaking aspects of WW2, but at the same time delivers a thrilling story that isn’t consumed by its setting. 

I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Andrea McGuffey

If I could give half stars, this would get one and a half but I was feeling generous and rounded up. This was a romance disguised as a spy novel. I was hoping for a spy novel, something along the lines of The Nightingale. This was nowhere close to that and the women seemed like terrible spies. Constantly using each others real first names, etc. It wasn't the worst book I've read but I've definitely read better books about female spies.

The Secret Stealers A Novel

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