Graham’s account is well-researched and scrupulously footnoted, but she also writes with a pulpy panache that turns the book into a well-paced thriller ... Flair keeps Book and Dagger briskly moving, though that same strategy can feel strained at times ... Well-told.
Graham tells all this in jaunty if scattershot style, gleefully sliding into accounts of spycraft where the protagonists simply fabricated stories to bamboozle the enemy ... Sometimes, she fills in the blanks with speculative episodes, meetings and passages of dialogue. There is no need for fiction when the facts of wartime espionage are already barely credible.
This deeply researched and engaging account shines a light on a vital but little-known aspect of intelligence gathering. Readers interested in World War II espionage and the role scholars have played in surveillance and reconnaissance campaigns will enjoy this volume.
