The Librarian Spy

Content warnings: war, Nazis, poverty, starvation, torture, murder, loss of a spouse, concentration camps

Ava Harper is an American librarian gathering intelligence during World War II.

Ava Harper is working at the Library of Congress when she is recruited to move to Lisbon and collect information from foreign publications about the war raging through Europe. Official German publications are propaganda and can't be relied upon for accurate accounts of the war. Ava speaks several languages and is the ideal recruit to help the war effort.

Elaine Roussea is a French woman living in Lyon. Her husband worked for the Resistance and has been taken by the Nazis. Elaine has also joined the resistance and helps print the contraband newspaper Combat.

Ava and Elaine are brought together when Elaine publishes a coded message in Combat to smuggle a Jewish mother and child out of France. Ava obtains the paper, decodes the message, and makes it her mission to help the Jewish family by bringing them to Portugal.

The two women's stories are in turns harrowing, hopeful, and heartbreaking. There is a sea of World War II fiction out there, and while this story seems original there are much better works of WWII fiction currently published.

Recommended if you can't get enough World War II fiction.

Madeline Martin is a New York Times bestselling author who writes historical fiction and romance. She lives in Florida.

Publisher: Hanover Square Press (print); Harlequin Audio

Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld

Running Time: 10 hours, 30 minutes

Length: 368 pages

Release Date: July 26, 2022

Representation: expats, refugees

I received an electronic galley copy of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I also received a digital audio recording of this title from the publisher through Libro.fm as a librarian review copy. I read the latter edition.