Agent Most Wanted: The Never-Before-Told Story of the Most Dangerous Spy of World War II

by Sonia Purnell Narrated by Caroline Hewitt

Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Chosen as a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by NPR, the New York Public Library, Amazon, the Seattle Times, the Washington Independent Review of Books, PopSugar, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, BookBrowse, the Spectator, and the Times of London

Winner of the Plutarch Award for Best Biography

“Excellent...This book is as riveting as any thriller, and as hard to put down.” -- The New York Times Book Review

"A compelling biography of a masterful spy, and a reminder of what can be done with a few brave people -- and a little resistance." - NPR

"A meticiulous history that reads like a thriller." - Ben Macintyre

A never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine.

In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her."

The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and--despite her prosthetic leg--helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it.

Virginia established vast spy networks throughout France, called weapons and explosives down from the skies, and became a linchpin for the Resistance. Even as her face covered wanted posters and a bounty was placed on her head, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped through a death-defying hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown. But she plunged back in, adamant that she had more lives to save, and led a victorious guerilla campaign, liberating swathes of France from the Nazis after D-Day.

Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall--an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance, and personal triumph over shocking adversity. A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Caroline Hewitt delivers a gripping performance of the young reader's edition of Purnell's bestseller about Virginia Hall, a socialite from Baltimore who worked as a spy for the Allies during WWII. Hewitt skillfully channels Hall's strong emotions at every stage of life: happiness at choosing the excitement of work over marriage, despite her mother’s disdain; anger at experiencing sexism when job seeking; determination when embedding herself in the heat of battle; courage and ferocious drive while dodging danger; charisma while building an underground network in France; and disappointment at being overlooked to be an OSS field agent during the war. With impeccable French pronunciations and much bravado, Hewitt depicts Hall as the quiet, intelligent, dynamic hero she was—flaws and all. S.D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

★“[A] gripping nonfiction work that reads like a spy thriller...The account of her many exploits is wonderfully written and made even more phenomenal by her determination. Readers will walk away inspired. A first purchase where WWII history and riveting tales of adventure are popular.” – School Library Journal (starred review)

★"This riveting biography provides the framework of Hall's life, concentrating on the war years and her phenomenal ability to fade into the background while gathering intelligence, communicating with the British, and undermining German control within occupied France. Young readers intrigued by espionage during World War II will find this a well-researched, smoothly written, and completely riveting account of Hall's experiences."—Booklist (starred review)

★"Well-chosen, key moments convey Hall’s reliance on both luck and her own instincts, her quick thinking, her immense skill at assessing perilous situations, and her frank courage. . . A captivating account of a remarkable woman."—Kirkus (starred review)

School Library Journal

★ 10/28/2022

Gr 5–7—Purnell adapts her bestselling A Woman of No Importance for a younger crowd in this gripping nonfiction work that reads like a spy thriller. Virginia Hall was known throughout her life by many names. She was Dindy to her family, Marie Monin to the French Resistance, and (because of her prosthetic leg) the "Limping Lady of Lyon" to Hitler's Gestapo and Abwehr secret police forces, but for many years, she was no one to most of the world, the true weight of her role in World War II unknown. Strong-willed Dindy's family was not surprised that she was unwilling to settle for a life as a housewife. After running off to France to escape a fiancé, Virginia came back to the States, went to college, and set her sights on a career as a diplomat. Though she never rose above a secretarial position in the deeply sexist state department, she worked in Europe as Hitler rose to power. Refusing to sit idly by, Virginia joined the fight, first as a volunteer ambulance driver in France and then, through some chance encounters, as the only U.S. citizen on the British spy force. The Brits trained her in spycraft and guerrilla war tactics, her primary objective being to recruit, train, arm, and maintain a French resistance behind enemy lines. The account of her many exploits is wonderfully written and made even more phenomenal by her determination. Readers will walk away inspired. VERDICT A first purchase where WWII history and riveting tales of adventure are popular.—Abby Bussen

SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Caroline Hewitt delivers a gripping performance of the young reader's edition of Purnell's bestseller about Virginia Hall, a socialite from Baltimore who worked as a spy for the Allies during WWII. Hewitt skillfully channels Hall's strong emotions at every stage of life: happiness at choosing the excitement of work over marriage, despite her mother’s disdain; anger at experiencing sexism when job seeking; determination when embedding herself in the heat of battle; courage and ferocious drive while dodging danger; charisma while building an underground network in France; and disappointment at being overlooked to be an OSS field agent during the war. With impeccable French pronunciations and much bravado, Hewitt depicts Hall as the quiet, intelligent, dynamic hero she was—flaws and all. S.D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2022-07-27
An essential player in the French Resistance was an American woman.

In this young readers’ edition of A Woman of No Importance (2019), Purnell relates how Virginia Hall, from a once-moneyed Baltimore family, was a natural leader among her peers who was fond of riding and hunting. Hall found herself thwarted in pursuing a career that didn’t sideline her because of gender. In a civilian assignment with the British Special Operations Executive, she trained as a spy and went to France in 1941. There, she gathered and relayed intelligence about the occupying Nazis and identified, organized, trained, and outfitted French citizens opposed to the complicit Vichy government. The narrative, pitched to middle-grade readers, follows Hall closely, providing just enough fully documented, concisely delivered information about the settings and circumstances of the Resistance to deliver a real sense of the danger and isolation faced by its subject. Well-chosen, key moments convey Hall’s reliance on both luck and her own instincts, her quick thinking, her immense skill at assessing perilous situations, and her frank courage. A timeline and maps might have been useful, but this close-up look at the Nazi occupation of France—and the Resistance—will undoubtedly encourage further exploration. That Hall had a prosthetic lower leg she called Cuthbert makes even more dramatic her hike over the Pyrenees to escape from Nazi pursuers.

A captivating account of a remarkable woman. (source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176044225
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	08/09/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

May 1940. France was falling to Germany. Ten million women, children, and old men—the largest exodus of refugees in history—were fleeing the armies of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. Roads were littered with burned-out cars, possessions, and bodies. But the horde kept coming: a never-ending line too hungry, tired, and fearful to stop.

A French army ambulance wove through the crowd, its driver a thirty-four-year-old American volunteer. Private Virginia Hall often ran low on fuel and medicine, but she just kept going. Even when enemy German aircraft screamed overhead, dive-bombing the convoys all around her, torching the cars and cratering the roads. Even when the planes machine-gunned the ditches where women and children were taking shelter. Even when her left hip complained with her constantly pressing on the clutch with her prosthetic foot.

In the midst of destruction, she had never felt so thrillingly alive.

Virginia's services as an ambulance driver was an apprenticeship for her future mission against the occupying German forces. In an age when women barely figured in warfare, she went on to create a daredevil role for herself involving espionage, sabotage, and resistance behind enemy lines.

As an undercover agent, Virginia operated in the shadows, and that was where she was happy. Her closest allies knew neither her real name nor her nationality. She seemed to have no home or family or regiment, just a burning desire to defeat the Nazis. Constantly changing her appearance and mannerisms, surfacing without notice then disappearing again, she remained a mystery throughout the war and in some ways after it too.

When the battle for France's liberation from Hitler's tyranny began, in 1944, the underground Resistance fighters she had equipped, trained, and sometimes commanded exceeded all expectations and helped bring about complete and final victory for the Allies: Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. But even that was not enough for Virginia Hall.

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