Hall of Mirrors: Virginia Hall–America’s Greatest Spy of WWII

In World War II France, she went by the name of Marie. Or Brigitte. Or a half other names. Some saw her as a middle-aged newspaper reporter. To others, she was a doddering old woman. To the Nazis, she was an elusive enemy, “The Lady Who Limps.” Her real name was Virginia Hall. She had a wooden leg she nicknamed “Cuthbert,” and she was a spy. As the Allies’ first agent to live behind the lines in Vichy France, she organized resistance groups, directed sabotage operations. Nazi wanted posters called her, “The most dangerous Allied agent.” She survived suicide missions and became the only civilian woman of the war to receive the Distinguished Service Cross. This is the story of Virginia Hall, based on hundreds of formerly classified documents, but told in first person, as Virginia would have told her own story—how she courageously broke through the barriers of physical limitation and gender discrimination to become America’s Greatest Spy of WWII.

“She was a legendary spy. He worked for three CIA directors. Now he’s writing a novel in her voice.”

—Washington Post