These books chronicle real life spy stories that match and surpass fictional thrillers for their tense, moment-by-moment narrative. True dramas of World War II are interlaced with biography to create exciting page turners.

Spyglass: An Autobiography
Helene Deschamps (1995)
An innocent 17-year-old French girl decides to work with the Resistance during WWII. Through increasingly dangerous missions, we follow her perilous exploits to help the Allied cause.

Cast no shadow: The Life of the American Spy Who Changed the World.
Mary S. Lovell (1992)
The seemingly benign life of a diplomat’s wife takes on new meaning in this fast-paced WWII spy thriller. Recruited by the British Secret Intelligence Service, we follow Betty Pack as she seduces the Axis men in power and helps to break the Enigma enciphering machine code, as well as delivering the Italian and Vichy naval cipher code books to the Allies.

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal.
Ben Macintyre (2007)
One of the most outlandish and bizarre spy stories to come out of WWII, this reallife thriller about Eddie Chapman has all the ingredients of an edge-of-your-seat mystery. Hair-raising adventures, romance, betrayal, and daring acts offer a realistic glance into the life of a spy.

A Man Called Intrepid
William Stevenson (2000)
The real life model for Ian Fleming’s James Bond was a charming but unremarkable person to the untrained eye. Most people would have been shocked to learn that he and his network of spies helped to defeat the Nazis in WWII through their heroic and dangerous acts behind the scenes.

Compiled by Sue Jefferson

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