The Secret Stealers: A Novel

During World War II, many women worked as intelligence operatives for the United States and Britain, doing their part for the war effort while men were on the battlefield. It was high-stakes work, whether a woman was positioned in their own country or at a foreign post. They held other people’s lives in their hands.

Some of the most dangerous work involved being sent undercover to occupied France, working directly with the French Resistance. The Secret Stealers is about Anna Cavanaugh, a young widow who finds herself doing exactly that, operating a wireless radio to send coded messages back to the SOE in England. It will be all she can do to keep the Nazis off her trail and make it out alive.

The description of the story caught my eye at once; I’ve always been a sucker for tales about women at war. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Healey’s eye for detail is exquisite, and her characters jump to life off the page, but I found the pacing slow and bogged down by unnecessary romance. I love romantic subplots when they arise naturally, but I could feel this one coming from the moment the two men were mentioned. I came very close to enjoying the book, but in the end, it simply didn’t work for me.