Dragonfly : a novel / Leila Meacham.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781538732229
- Physical Description: xi, 563 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Grand Central Publishing, 2019.
- Copyright: ©2019.
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | United States. Office of Strategic Services > Fiction. Intelligence service > Fiction. World War, 1939-1945 > Secret service > Fiction. |
Genre: | War fiction. Historical fiction. Spy fiction. |
Available copies
- 11 of 11 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Prince Rupert Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 11 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Prince Rupert Library | Meac (Text) | 33294002056869 | Adult Fiction - Second Floor | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 May #1
Meacham, author of several best-selling historical novels set primarily in Texas (Titans, 2016), turns to Paris in 1942, where five Americans have been airlifted into France (Operation Dragonfly) to support the Resistance and gather intelligence on the Nazi war effort. The five, led by fashion-designer and artist Bridgette, each have their own assignments and are instructed to remain separate from one another, lest one is captured and, under torture, reveals information about the others. In an audacious plot twist, three of the five encounter two powerful Nazis who are plotting to end Hitler's reign; the Nazis realize that the three are spies but continue to feed them information that could damage Hitler, though the Americans are in the dark about what's happening. Gradually, though, the net closes as the Americans, working under the constant fear of imminent exposure (a perennial theme in Resistance fiction), begin to prompt interest in the wrong places. Meacham ratchets the suspense ever tighter, while providing fascinating backstory on the intrepid five as well as delivering a detail-rich portrait of Paris during the Occupation. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2019 July
DragonflyFrom E.M. Nathanson's The Dirty Dozen to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, the trope of a disparate yet plucky band of outsiders deployed behind enemy lines to carry out a secret mission is well-trod territory. And in the hands of a lesser writer than Leila Meacham, author of bestsellers Roses and Somerset, it could easily descend into redundancy or even parody. Happily, in Dragonfly, this is by no means the case.
Five idealistic young Americansâtwo women and three menâare recruited at the height of World War II to assume secret identities in Paris and spy for the Allies. Over the course of the opening chapters, we come to realize that each has a motive beyond patriotism that qualifies them for the mission but could also endanger both their operation and their lives.
During their cursory read-in and training, one of the five, a fly fisherman, codenamed Limpet, comes up with the perfect name for the team: Dragonfly. "They're almost impossible to snare and have no blind spots," he explains. "Their eyes wrap around their heads like a football helmet to give them a three-hundred-sixty-degree view. Most insects, predators can attack from underneath and behind. Those are their vulnerable areas. Dragonflies don't have them."
Ah, but this Dragonfly does. In an occupied city where the slightest transgression or out-of-place comment can get you reported to the Gestapo, our freshly minted agents find themselves evading close call after close callâuntil they don't. Is one of their number nimble enough to escape a prison cell and a firing squad? The truth, if there's one to be had, may rest on a single mark on a convent wall's mural.
Most people in Americaâand for that matter, most people in Paris by this pointâhave never lived in an occupied city. Meacham's impeccable pacing and razor-wire tension evoke the daily drama of life under a Reich whose French reign might have lasted little more than four years but felt like the thousand years that it threatened to endure.
Copyright 2019 BookPage Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2019 May #1
During World War II, five Americans head to Nazi-occupied France on a secret mission for the OSS, but only four return. Twenty years later, OSS case officer Alistair Renault finds a clue in a history book that the missing member of their group might have survived after all. He flashes back to the beginning of the operation, when he first assembled the team he dubbed "Dragonfly"âthree men and two women who were chosen for their special skills and secret connection to the war. The five recruits bond in training, but once on their mission, they split up to avoid being caught by the enemy and communicate by making marks on a mural painted on the courtyard wall of a convent. Their cover stories offer surprising glimpses of daily life for the French and their German occupiers. (And a character list at the beginning of the book helps keep their real names and aliases straight.) Christoph Brandt, a track-and-field coach who couldn't be drafted to the American military due to his missing thumb, learns firsthand how the Hitler Youth are taught to bully. He ingratiates himself with the Nazis by tut oring the son of the head of the Abwehr German intelligence agency in France. But the Nazis won't be fooled for long. Civil engineer Samuel "Bucky" Barton risks being discovered by Christoph's old friend from his hometown who betrayed his country to join the Third Reich. Working side by side with the enemy, the Americans are surprised to learn that some of the Nazis are not what they seem. Tired, disillusioned, and looking for redemption, they blur the line between friend and foe, giving Dragonfly both a way into the organization and a way out of the war. Complex, epic, and rich in historical detailâan uplifting story of finding friendship behind enemy lines. Copyright Kirkus 2019 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - LJ Express Reviews : LJ Express Reviews
A quintet of twentysomething Americans, are recruited by "the man in brown" to work on a secret mission, for reasons known only to him. They all accept, for reasons known only to them. After necessary training, they are given new identities and smuggled into Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942. Their team name is Dragonfly. Insinuating themselves into the lives of important officials, they report faithfully to their handler. They don't realize, however, that unfriendly folks have deduced their true roles and are simply stringing them along. When D-Day arrives, the five are swept up in the rush to survive, and one doesn't make it to the rendezvous point. Twenty years later, an obscure book seems to offer the reason why. Meacham has previously specialized in romance novels (
Copyright 2019 LJExpress.Roses ;Tumbleweeds ), and this story has that same sweep and atmosphere. The thrills are tingly rather than electrifying, the leads are superficially satisfying, and the enemies meet their appropriate ends.VERDICT A long and leisurely spy novel, reminiscent of a 1950s movie. Recommended where there is voracious genre readership.âW. Keith McCoy, Somerset Cty. Lib. Syst., Bridgewater, NJ - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2019 May #2
In this fast-paced and enjoyable WWII espionage tale, Meacham (
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly.Roses ) takes readers to 1942 Nazi-occupied Paris to follow five American spies as they attempt to gather information to assist Allied and French Resistance forces. Americans Brad, Bridgette, Bucky, Chris, and Victoria have been recruited as spies for the CIA's Office of Special Services. After undergoing rigorous training, the eclectic crewâa professional fencer, a fashion designer, a fly fisherman, the son of a wealthy businessman, and a Texan with German rootsâmeet for the first time in Paris. The spies, collectively called Dragonfly, find themselves in dangerous situations from the off; communicating in code, they must form their plans in secret as they attempt to blend in to a cold, starving, terrified Paris. Each takes up employment with potential collaborators, working as tutors, listening in at boarding houses, and chatting between casts of a fly-fishing reel for information to send back to the OSS. After Victoria is captured and the others fear their code may be broken, the Dragonfly mission comes apart and all members must fend for themselves. While the set up and ending are both thrilling, the five spies are separated throughout the middle. Their isolation, Meacham's close concentration on each character's particular struggles to survive in isolation, and the drawn-out foreshadowing that one of the spies will be shot slows the momentum leading to the gripping finale. Despite this, Meacham's nail-biting tale will please fans looking for an intricate story of spycraft and deception. (July)