Novelist Ariel Lawhon (Flight of Dreams) features bold female characters who have a knack for bending the truth. In her fourth novel, Code Name Hélène, Lawhon turns her attention to Nancy Grace Augusta Wake, a scrappy Australian runaway who became a nurse and a journalist (under her own name) and then a spy with Britain's SOE (under several aliases) during World War II. Moving between Nancy's exploits in France toward the end of the war and several other periods in her life, Lawhon spins a captivating narrative of a woman who would stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis and who was as comfortable handling a revolver as her signature red Elizabeth Arden lipstick.
Lawhon's narrative begins in the winter of 1944, as Nancy (hungover but determined) jumps out of a plane into occupied France. She sweeps readers into Nancy's wry, fast-talking, first-person account of her adventures, taking readers deep into the French countryside with Nancy and her compatriots, and then flipping back to Paris, where Nancy meets her future husband, Henri Fiocca. Their love will sustain them throughout the war, as both (especially Nancy) face increasing hardship and danger.
While Nancy cuts a vivid, stylish figure through the novel's pages, her supporting cast is also compelling. Their feats of daring and gritty survival tactics are drawn largely from accounts by Nancy and others, but Lawhon's elegant plotting makes them shine. Bold, confident, dryly witty and driven by a strong sense of justice, Nancy (no matter which name she uses) is a fascinating character. Lawhon's gripping narrative gives "Hélène" her due. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams