How one Frenchwoman's spy network helped win the war against the Nazis.Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909-1989) was raised in a well-to-do French family, but she was extremely independent for her time and refused to comply with the unstated rules of proper feminine behavior. "All her life," writes Olson (Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood That Helped Turn the Tide of War, 2017, etc.), "she rebelled against the norms of France's deeply conservative, patriarchal society." When she was approached to work with an espionage group to help the Allies before the onset of World War II, she accepted the position with little hesitation. Following this life-changing decision, she became the eventual leader of the group known as "Alliance," a vast network of spies and radio operators who worked all over France. In a comprehensive, often exciting narrative, the author chronicles the actions of Fourcade and Alliance from 1936 to 1945. Her use of quotes and solid descriptive passages help re-create the tension and anxiety Fourcade and her friends felt as they risked everything to save France. Olson also effectively integrates a thorough history of the role of the Vichy government during this time as well as details on how MI6 and the Allies used the information Alliance collected to change the course of the war. She shares specifics on many of the agents under Fourcade's control, their daring exploits and escapes, and what happened to those captured by the Germans. With the same attention to detail, Olson writes about Fourcade's secret lover and her children. Although the text is overlong, the author brings into the spotlight a woman whose courage and endurance helped shape history yet whose full story had not yet been told. "For several decades following the war," writes the author, "histories of the French resistance, which were written almost exclusively by men, largely ignored the contributions of women." Olson rectifies that omission.An engaging, informative addition to World War II history. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Every so often a history book comes along that tells a riveting story--"reads like a novel" is the customary praise--significantly expands knowledge of the past, and compels one to rethink the historiography of its narrative. Such a triumph is Olson's Madame Fourcade's Secret War, an account of France's largest espionage network during the Occupation and the elegant, beautiful, 31-year-old Marie-Madeleine Fourcade (1909--89) who led it. In the face of the Nazis' suffocating surveillance and savage reprisals--some 450 members of the Resistance network Fourcade led were executed--Fourcade's agents garnered intelligence that helped win the U-boat war, assisted in planning the D-Day invasion, and provided information on the German ballistic missile program that allowed the Allies to forestall its development until the second front was secure. Fourcade's work has been too long ignored: her story fell victim to competition over control of the historical narrative about the Resistance on the parts of the communists, de Gaulle's Free French, and the Maquisards. In addition, Fourcade's background, her practical feminism, and her alignment with British intelligence ensured her story was downplayed after the war; her memoir, L'Arche de Noé (1968; Eng. tr., Noah's Ark, CH, May'74), was for the most part ignored. Bottom line: Olson's book is important as well as captivating. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --Gary P. Cox, emeritus, Gordon State College

Expanding her earlier works on World War II history, Olson (Last Hope Island) here highlights the wartime efforts of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, who led one of the largest and most effective spy networks for the French Resistance. The book begins in 1936 and follows Fourcade through the war and beyond, when she worked to have the agents' sacrifices recognized by the French government to ensure they-or their family members-received benefits for their service. Though not covered with the same depth as Fourcade's activities, the experiences of several key members in her Resistance cell are also chronicled, fleshing out the larger scope of this group. The organizational genius of Fourcade shines through tales of her cat-and-mouse game with the Gestapo, including multiple daring escapes from Nazi captivity. VERDICT As well researched and engrossing as her previous books, showcasing her adroit ability to weave personal narratives, political intrigue, and wartime developments to tell a riveting story, Olson's latest is highly recommended to readers interested in World War II, the history of espionage, women's history, and European history.-Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib. © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Olson, who in Last Hope Island and Citizens of London (2017) mined lesser-known world-war history to great effect, has penned the incredibly absorbing and long-overdue chronicle of the exploits and accomplishments of French Resistance hero Mme Marie Madeleine Fourcarde, code-named Hedgehog. A seemingly unlikely freedom fighter, Mme Fourcarde, a glamorous, well-heeled young mother, used her image to her advantage as she joined and eventually directed a group known as Alliance (dubbed Noah's Ark by frustrated Nazi agents), one of the most successful intelligence gathering units operating in France. Organizing a cadre of spies that numbered in the thousands, she successfully befuddled the Gestapo by constantly switching headquarters, strategically restructuring her network, and cleverly changing her own appearance. Captured twice, she managed daring escapes each time and continued to provide the Allies with invaluable information, including critical D-Day logistics. After the war, she worked tirelessly on behalf of both her fallen and her surviving wartime colleagues. This masterfully told true story reads like fiction and will appeal to readers who devour WWII thrillers à la Kristen Hannah's The Nightingale (2015).--Margaret Flanagan Copyright 2019 Booklist

Historian and journalist Olson (Last Hope Island) vivifies the history of the French Resistance during WWII with a brilliant, cinematic biography of resistance leader Marie-Madeleine Fourcade. As Olson recounts, Fourcade was 31 in 1941, a mother of two by her long-estranged husband, wealthy, beautiful, and temperamentally born to lead. She was recruited to the Resistance by Georges Loustaunau-Lacau, who founded the Alliance intelligence network in 1940 and passed leadership to Fourcade in 1941. She organized, recruited, trained, raised funds (principally from England's MI6), hid, changed identities as often as she dyed her hair, and suffered arrest and torture by Nazis. She loved fellow agent Léon Faye and bore his son in the middle of WWII, and recorded her experiences, including bonds with fellow spies, in her diary: "The connection formed by a threat to one's country is the strongest connection of all." Olson's weaving of Fourcade's diary artfully and liberally into her own writing and her heart-stopping descriptions of Paris, escapes, and internecine warring create a narrative that's as dramatic as a novel or a film. Olson honors Fourcade's fight for freedom and her "refusal to be silenced" with a gripping narrative that will thrill WWII history buffs. Illus. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.