Description
"A sharply written adventure/mystery debut." --Kirkus Reviews
Women Air Force Service Pilot and undercover agent Pucci Lewis did not want to go to jail. But how else could she unmask Grace Buchanan-Dineen, an imprisoned countess/counteragent suspected of triple-dealing and possibly putting the country's future at risk?
Buchanan-Dineen was a real-life figure who led a German spy ring operating in Detroit during WWII. Confronted by the FBI, she agreed to act as a counteragent helping to nail the other ring members. Jailed along with her cohorts--"for her own protection"--her rancor ran deep.
Enter Pucci, landing in a B-24 bomber at the Willow Run aircraft factory. Late for a meeting, she takes a shortcut and stumbles upon a corpse. Agent Dante appears, revealing the dead man to be a German spy. A fellow Willow Run employee, Otto Renner, had been under surveillance and the FBI suspects a link between Renner and the imprisoned countess. Dante convinces Pucci to become a sister inmate to see what she can learn. Then she infiltrates a posh women's club where Buchanan-Dineen once lectured as a "charm consultant." Could the club be the center of a spy ring?
Product Details
| Publisher | Poisoned Pen Press |
| Publish Date | March 01, 2009 |
| Pages | 320 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781590585634 |
| Dimensions | 8.3 X 7.3 X 0.8 inches | 0.9 pounds |
About the Author
Margit Liesche is the daughter of Hungarian refugees who arrived in the U.S. in 1947 following eight years of missionary service in war-torn central China. She lives and writes in Marin County, California.
Reviews
"The year 1943: Enemy agents are working to attack the U.S. from within. Pucci Lewis, a WASP pilot with a sideline in espionage, ferries planes around the country. Trained by the OSS, she's unexpectedly seconded to the FBI when she arrives in Detroit. She enjoys working for attractive Agent Dante until she's sent to jail disguised as a jewel thief to try to get close to Countess Grace Buchanan-Dineen, a counter-agent who may be double-crossing the Bureau. Next she's disguised as a reporter ensconced in the ritzy Cosmos Club, where she's supposed to be interviewing women contributing to the war effort while keeping an eye on Otto Renner, who's suspected of passing classified information to the enemy from the nearby Willow Run aircraft factory. Renner's wife is a beautician at the Cosmos Club, and society sisters Dee and Kiki Barclay-Bly, along with Kiki's husband V-V, a former Ukrainian freedom fighter, may also be undermining the home front. Pucci is shocked to meet her OSS roommate and dear friend Liberty Leach working as a manicurist at the club. When Liberty begs Pucci not to reveal her identity, Pucci wonders if she's caught in another turf war between government agencies or a more sinister conflict. In her reporter guise, Pucci interviews many suspects before her sleuthing rolls up the spy ring. A sharply written adventure/mystery debut with a fine feeling for the period." --Kirkus Reviews of Lipstick and Lies
"Undercover action in World War II histories usually take place behind enemy lines in overseas war zones. Bar Margit Liesche has combined the actual operations of a Nazi spy ring in Detroit with Pucci Lewis, a fictional agent whose OSS training unmasks a plot that could have put American at risk. This is an exciting, beautifully written documented adventure story that combines fact and fiction into an engrossing drama of spy work and the actual infiltration of Nazi agents into mid-west America." --Elizabeth P McIntosh, Former OSS agent of Lipstick and Lies
"In 1943, Pucci Lewis, a WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilot), is recruited by the FBI to ferret out information from a counterspy jailed in Detroit. Pucci, who is part OSS-trained spy, part flag-waving American, and part naïve young woman, is a delight...Liesche is a writer to watch." -Library Journal of Lipstick and Lies "Liesche teases out interesting parallels between the 1940s and the present day..." -Publishers Weekly of Lipstick and LIes
Earn by promoting books
