Book Review: The Book Spy by Alan Hlad

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1942: With the war's outcome hanging in the balance, every sliver of intelligence can be critical. Though far from the battlefields, cities like Lisbon, Portugal's neutral capital, become lynchpins in a different kind of warfare, as President Roosevelt sends an unlikely new taskforce on a unique mission. They are librarians and microfilm specialists trained in espionage, working with a special branch of the Office of Strategic Services. By acquiring and scouring Axis books, newspapers, technical manuals, and periodicals, the librarians can gather information about troop location, weaponry, and military plans. Maria Alves, a microfilm expert working at the New York Public Library, is dispatched to Lisbon, where she meticulously photographs publications and sends the film to London to be analyzed. Working in tandem with Tiago Soares, a brave and honorable bookstore owner on a precarious mission of his own - providing Jewish refugees with forged passports and visas - Maria acquires vital information, including a directory of arms factories in Germany. But as she and Tiago grow closer, any future together is jeopardized when Maria's superiors ask her to pose as a double agent, feeding misinformation to Lars Steiger, a wealthy Swiss banker and Nazi sympathizer who launders Hitler's gold. Gaining Lars' trust will bring Maria into the very heart of the Fuhrer's inner circle. And it will provide her with a chance to help steer the course of war, if she is willing to take risks as great as the possible rewards... ~~~~ In this engaging, dramatic historical novel that illuminates a little-known facet of World Warr II, USA Today bestselling author Alan Hlad explores the real-life librarian spies who hunted down crucial intelligence through Europe. The author has obviously done an astounding amount of research in writing this novel based on real events and real people. I am not a fan of this genre but I did enjoy it. I read another of his novels, The Long Way Home, another historical military based novel, and enjoyed it as well. Though the story was filled with intrigue, suspense and a little romance, I felt it read like a history book at times. One of the reasons I steer away from historical reads. But as a story, this was a 5 star read for me. I read this 365 page novel in 4 days. This is high on my recommend list for historical, WWII, genre readers.