Judith Pearson's The Wolves At The Door

Judith Pearson’s The Wolves at the Door: The True Story of America's Greatest Female Spy tells the untold story of World War II heroine, American patriot, and top-level covert spy, Virginia Hall. In an era were women were submissive and inferior, Virginia Hall conquered the man’s world of covert intelligence. She is one of history’s greatest spies whose sole actions not only saved countless lives, but also arguably changed the course of the War. The author starts by recounting her childhood and formative years leading up to the focal point of her life as secret agent for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in German-occupied France. Despite the extraordinary circumstances Virginia faced in her life, she was devoted to accomplishing her personal aspirations and to fight against tyranny. Virginia Halls successful missions that “locate(d) drop zones for money and weapons, helped engage POWs and downed Allied airmen flee to England, and secured safe houses for agents” put a high price on her head. (Pearson) Themes of courage, gender inequality, humility, and opportunity along with extraordinary determination, act as the platform of this

Her writing style flowed as seamlessly as a movie script, which allowed the reader to visualize the events she was describing. As for the books failure, at times the reading felt more like a generic history book than an account of person’s life, nearly doubling as history book of Western Europe’s participation in World War II. The author overly provided background information about the war that was not always relevant to the story being told. Additionally, the author’s shift from third person to first person was confusing at times yet positively contributed to the admired story-telling aspect of the account. Overall, this story of a woman’s heroism in World War II is enlightening and captivating as the only true account of America’s greatest female