Code Name Butterfly
In the early days of WWII, American journalist and literature student Elodie Mitchell is marking time in Paris, desperate to get the first ship out of Europe. But a not-entirely-chance encounter with fellow American Grant Monterey leads her to one of Josephine Baker’s shows – and its after-party, which sucks her into an inner circle of American ex-pats working to identify French traitors who are feeding information to Nazi Germany. Half-reluctantly, Elly chooses to stay and help, but will she leave it too late to escape?
What sets this WWII spy thriller-cum-romance apart from all the others I have reviewed is that all the central characters are African Americans, whose part in the war is, I suspect, little known to the general public. This is the author’s first traditionally published novel, but her experience as an independent author shows in her confidence with handling characterisation, dialogue and plotting.
It’s a little startling, but historically correct, to find the characters referring to themselves as either ‘coloured’ or ‘Negro’. Elsewhere, however, there’s the occasional use of a phrase that feels too modern for the 1940s (e.g., ‘I’m good’, meaning ‘I’m fine/well/okay’ or ‘I get where you’re going with this’). Similarly, Josephine Baker is occasionally referred to as Ms Baker – not a mode of address that was used at the time, as far as I’m aware.
But apart from these minor blips, this is a well-written novel with an engaging heroine, a complicated hero, a multi-faceted supporting cast, and a page-turning plot. I did wonder about the framing device of the prologue and epilogue featuring Elly’s descendants, but it allows the author to fill in what happened next in an economical fashion. It’s refreshing to read a new perspective on a war that has grown hackneyed with repeated retelling.
