Dragonfly
In 1942, five young Americans are carefully selected for their linguistic skills and special talents to be trained as special operatives. The group was named Dragonfly with a mission to gather intelligence inside German-occupied France that would prove invaluable to the Allies. We learn at the start that four members of the group made it safely home, but one was executed by a firing squad. Dragonfly begins in 1962 when Alistair Renault, their handler within the OSS, reads an unbelievable claim that the fifth member survived. How could this be when three Dragonfly members witnessed the execution? We then jump back to 1942 to learn what took place.
After Bucky, Bridgette, Chris, Brad, and Victoria were recruited, they were brought together to train. Each was forbidden to reveal to each other their real names or any details of their personal lives for the protection of all. The group only knew each other by his or her code name. When strategies of communication were worked out, they were individually dropped into France and placed in their new lives with new names. This initial setup of the plot is a slow build, but once the groundwork is laid, the reader is rewarded. Throughout the book we are left guessing who was executed. And did he or she really survive? If so, how? Tension builds as high-stakes games in this world of espionage intrigue and danger play out. Schemes against Hitler within the ranks of the Abwehr, German army intelligence, and the Sicherheitsdienst, a division of the SS, add another dimension to the plot. But inevitably, things fall apart. The story is so well told that when characters make improbable leaps of deduction that prove true and coincidences occur, it is easy to overlook and thoroughly enjoy this engrossing story.
