Code Name: Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy

A captivating true story of a female spy in World War II. In all honesty, I had to read this in a 3 day time span. It was so harrowing, horrific and heart-breaking, I had to take many breaks while reading. 'Code Name: Lise' worked for the SPINDLE Circuit (Special Operations Executive) or SOE as it is referred to in this book. She was born in France but moved to England at an early age. Odette was her name at birth. The entire time I was reading this true story, my admiration for her grew. From her recruitment into SOE and the training, her determination to succeed illustrated her true spirit. And, of course, I kept wondering what created her motivation? Despite numerous serious health problems at an early age, she persevered. And, persevered with an open mind and spirit. The depth of the training was intense and was divided into 4 phases. And, it should be noted that 80% of the trainees were disqualified. Not one area was left out....physical, explosives, weapons, ciphers, killing and even included grenades and machine guns. These agents were trained to the maximum and trust me, without this intense training, some would have not survived. Finally in early 1943, she was on her way and SPINDLE was set. Her commanding officer was Peter Churchill and the mission was in Marseilles, France. The beginning of the spy portion in this book. For me, some items really stood out including the rationing of food during the war. Also, on a personal note my Dad was in WW II aboard an aircraft carrier and he had told me years ago that the radio equipment was so heavy. In this book, the radio operator was tasked with carrying the equipment to different locations to avoid detection. As one may surmise, these operators were truly sought after as they had knowledge of many items the other side was extremely interested in. The treatment of the prisoners in the prisons and in the Concentration Camps was just plain horrific. The Gestapo had interrogation fine-tuned to extract the most information. I have never read more details about the interrogation techniques than in this book. And, this is when I had to take frequent breaks...excruciating is the word that comes to mind but really torture at its finest...ouch... Some better moments occurred, however, with the selfless priest, Father Steinert. Thank God, for people of his caliber... Truly a saint put into the cloak of a priest at the right time for the prisoners. And, I also kept wondering where in the world did Odette get her intestinal fortitude to carry on? Where does courage come from? And, why did she join in the SOE in the first place? The author has a most interesting Appendix that explains the awards (including the George Cross) given to Odette and Peter were not without a lot of controversy. And, controversy that continued for many years. Truly an educational read for me...especially the portions on the training aspect for SOE, the treatment of the prisoners by the Gestapo, and the manner in which the missions were carried out. Most highly recommended...

A well written docu-drama novel. I would like to know what happened with Odette’s children after the war. What did they do with their lives ? Also, I would like to know if Peter& Odette ever met Father Paul in person again. It’s so interesting to see how some people are spared the worst outcomes while others suffer the consequences of fate, destiny or whatever you want to call it.

This book was absolutely not my preferred genre. However, the author is clearly a very talented writer with a heart for research and telling the entire story. The book was slightly confusing in that everyone seemed to have multiple names, I was so thankful they had listed everyone at the beginning so I could look back and keep things straight. This book was very eye opening in regards to non-Jewish people also being imprisoned. This book definitely educated me on an aspect of World War II that I was not familiar with. I loved the included photos. It was nice to see women heroes. I wish more of them could have survived. Overall well written and worth reading, especially if this is the genre you enjoy.

Odette Sansom was one of the most highly decorated spies in English history; male of female. You will not find what she did to deserve her awards in this book. Odette was an agent of the “F” (French) section of the SOE. The. “F” section has been mistreated by history, mostly because the section spent most of WWII having to fend off attacks by De Gaulle that were nearly as ferocious as those of the nazies. SOE had to organize a separate section (Free French) to support De Gaulle’s organization. The latter was despised by Roosevelt and barely tolerated by Churchill (e.g., De Gaulle was excluded from the D-Day planning, he was not told the date of the D-day until the 4th of June; the Free French division that was a part of the D-day got its orders before De Gaulle learned of the day of the invasion) Since the history is written by the winners, the stories of section “F” operatives that were separate from the triumphs of the Free French have been infrequent until recently. This book is one of those stories that are irresistible to a WWII buff. The book is chronological. The first half describes the life of Odette Sansom before the war, her decision to join SOE, her training, her deployment and work in France. The second part of the book is her falling in love with Peter Churchill, her arrest, her single-minded dedication to Peter, her mistreatment by the Germans, her liberation, her short marriage to Peter, and her fight to clear her name from a smear campaign after the war. These two parts have very little in common other than the names of the persons involved. The first part of the book contains very little original material. Most factual details about SOE are clipped from three books that I highly recommend: “Madame Fourcade's Secret War” (Madame Fourcad was the leader of the French Resistance network "Alliance"), “Spymistress: The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II” (the story of Vera Atkins), and “Between Silk and Cyanide” (Leo Marks description of the Code war). The fillers in between those are the setup of a classic Romance Novel: a sensitive woman struggling against suffocating marriage, uncaring husband, and the society that does not understand her. The description of what Lise (Odette’s code name) was doing in France is both very factual and very disappointing. Many reviewers came up with a statement, “I understand that she was a courier. But what does a courier do?” What tripped them is that a courier is one of the most dangerous jobs, one of the most vital, and, at the same time, one of the most boring. All three aspects were presented in the book very honestly and without trying to make Lise a James Bond. Unfortunately, this is the point where the Great Romance starts and overshadows everything else. For those who do not know the function of the courier: spy and even saboteur organizations live and die by their ability to communicate. Information collected by a spy is useless unless it is conveyed to a group organizer, analyzed by him/her, collated, sent to a wireless operator, and transmitted to the SOE. The questionnaires from SOE travel in the opposite direction. The courier facilitates these transactions since none of the players could be permitted to know each other. Otherwise, an arrest of one person would lead to a complete collapse of the whole organization. Couriers and the organizer are the only people who know nearly everybody and have to keep it secret. The boring part of the courier work is that she just goes from one place to another. The horrifying part is that she is nearly always carrying incriminating evidence on herself, she is one of the most prized targets, and knows it. She (the book explains why it typically was “she”) lives by her wits and, being a source of the most valuable information, would have to withstand horrific abuse to extract this information when captured. The author described all three parts faithfully. Lise (Odette) was captured, horribly abused and did not reveal anything. Peter Churchill’s organization was very successful. Lise contributed greatly to its success. The reader will not find a single bit of information related to the importance of SPINDLE circuit that they ran. Instead, the book turns into the Great Romance Novel. The author obviously interviewed many people but the artistic license that he took, the complete substitution of his thoughts for those of Peter and Odette, the great dialogues that he uses to describe his heroes are horribly distracting. I would not spoil the readers a chance to enjoy every excruciating detail of Odette’s feelings for Peter, and Peter’s feelings for Odette as imagined by the author. The last part of the book is dedicated to Peter and Odette trying to defend their names against a smear campaign that was to hound their lives in the fifties and sixties. I think the author did them a disservice in describing it in great details. The saying “Do not wrestle with pigs in mud; you will not come out clean and the pigs may enjoy it” comes to mind. You either totally destroy the pigs or stop at calling them pigs. The author spends way more time on that subject than on what Peter did in France or in England during the war. I presume the book has its target audience; it is definitely not an audience of people who want to learn what Odette did and why she deserved her awards.

Still reading this book. Once started hard to put down.

As someone who knows Odette's story well, I was delighted to read this book from Larry Loftis. He writes a faithful account of Odette's recruitment into SOE; her work as part of the Spindle network; and most importantly, her incredible courage, dignity and fortitude. Her story comes alive as the pages turn. 'Code Name: Lise' will take Odette's legacy to a much larger audience, and for this we can only be grateful to Mr Loftis. It will also undoubtedly give younger generations a deep insight into what it is that makes a real heroine.

Larry Loftis is my new favourite author. Never knew a book with so much factual detail could be such a good read! He filled in some gaps in my sketchy knowledge of WW2 and he is a consummate story teller.

Love the book. Will read it again.

A thoroughly good read.