Spitfire

November 1, 2019
Post-Blitz London has no place for a former Resistance fighter--until a brand-new intelligence network puts her skills to use at the dawn of the Cold War. Lancashire girl Olivia Nash volunteered to do her part for the war effort in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but her superiors soon spotted that French was her mother tongue and pluck was her middle name. Livy trained in lock-picking and marksmanship, then landed in Vichy France to support the Resistance. But now, with the war over and her comrade and lover, Peter Scobee, dead, Livy is stuck proofreading at a third-rate newspaper and drinking too much cheap vodka until her talents are requested by none other than a highly polished gentleman named Ian Fleming. His "newspapers" need a new "foreign correspondent" to track the spiderweb of Nazi spies who betrayed Livy and Peter, spies now selling their services to the highest bidder as the alliance between the Soviets and the British and Americans rapidly unravels. After receiving remedial etiquette lessons and an elegant new wardrobe, Livy infiltrates an embassy ball to acquire a list of the operatives. She gets the list only to be robbed of it at gunpoint by a mustachioed man. To retrieve the list, she must fly to Paris--where she meets up with a handsome American with a knack for good timing--and seek her nemesis. Huie's debut is an old-fashioned mystery shot through with tragedy; for aficionados of the glamour and romance of spycraft.

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Starred review from November 25, 2019
Huie’s spirited debut and series launch introduces Olivia “Livy” Nash, whose daring exploits as a spy in France during WWII earned her the code name Spitfire. While men returned from the war to parades and medals, women like Livy were expected to quietly drift into the role of secretary or housewife. Back in London in 1946, Livy is reduced to proofreading the women’s column for a third-rate newspaper, numbing her disillusionment with black market vodka. “For her, the war hadn’t been something to be endured; it had given her purpose and meaning. Qualities her life now decidedly lacked.” However, her military record has not gone unnoticed by naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming, who’s putting together an espionage unit to fight “the next war,” which “began before the last even ended.” Livy is drawn into a world of spies and counterspies. Huie does an excellent job dramatizing events in the early days of the cold war. Vibrant characters, international intrigue, gritty action, and a wittily acerbic Ian Fleming, too—who could ask for more? Agent: Carrie Pestritto, Laura Dail Literary.

December 15, 2019
Livy Nash was dropped behind Nazi lines during WWII and became known as Spitfire, even by the Germans, for her daring escapades. Now, in postwar England, she's editing a dreary newspaper column for ladies and drinking too much to help her cope with the loss of her wartime lover. She's only too eager for a change when she's approached by one Ian Fleming to go back to France to chase a mysterious list that chronicles who is a danger to the newfound peace; while there, she hopes to find her lover's killer. Fleming's orders form the backdrop to Livy's work, but this debut is more emotional than Fleming's own Bond novels, offering a look at the fragile psyches of veterans in England and France, as well as the inner turmoil of war heroes who've seen too much but feel morally bound to fight on. Nash is a welcome new protagonist who will be welcomed by fans of Kate Atkinson's Transcription (2018) and Simon Mawer's Tightrope (2015).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)