Code Name: Lise

by Larry Loftis

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Being American, I knew nothing about Odette Sansom until I went hunting for books about female spies during WWI and WWII.  Although initially intended as a research project for a WIP, what this instead has done is introduce me to some brave women who, in popular knowledge, have fallen through the cracks.  I wonder how many more like Odette have disappeared through the cracks in history.

As a biography, I feel that Code Name: Lise was only partially successful.  Although Odette Sansom is the title character and subject of this biography, I felt more of the book told Peter Churchill's POV.  Now, I know with non-fiction this can be tricky, because you're limited to your source materials.  The end of this book gave me the impression that talking about Sansom and Churchill, particularly Sansom, has been a bit controversial.  They end of this book outlined some scandals and outcries about validity, so between the secretive nature of the work as well as PR needs, it possible that without Churchill's POV, Loftis just didn't have enough content to write a full book about Sansom by herself.

It's still an interesting story, don't get me wrong.  But I feel a bit misled about the subject.

If you approach Code Name: Lise as more of a historic snapshot of a love story between two people in a war, that happen to also be part of a small spy outfit, well then!  This book will be exactly what you expect.

I thought the way Loftis wrote this book made it very accessible.  For non-fiction, this reads a bit more like a novel, making it very easy to ingest.  I think that those who shy away from non-fiction due to its typical dry nature will enjoy Code Name: Lise, from a stylistic perspective.

Content-wise, other than the love story and the espionage experience (and, really, Odette was a courier, so no sabotage)... it's important to know that there are scenes in this book that take place at concentration camps.  Trigger warnings for torture, including starvation.  While it's not very graphic, the existence of these things is delivered in a straightforward way and is disturbing.  While it doesn't verge on what I've read in other Holocaust books, the camps still make up the second half of the book, and I don't ant anyone to stumble upon them unawares.

Overall this book was fine.  I was content listening to it, and there were moments earlier in the book that I found very impressive, but eventually everything mushed together.  Peter's story took over, and by the end, my interest waned.