
Spymistress
The True Story of the Greatest Female Secret Agent of World War II
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Narrated by:
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Nicholas Camm
About this listen
A rousing tale of espionage and unsung valor, this is the captivating true story of Vera Atkins, Great Britain's spymistress from the age of 25. With her fierce intelligence, blunt manner, personal courage, and exceptional informants, Vera ran countless missions throughout the 1930s. After rising to the leadership echelon in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a covert intelligence agency formed by Winston Churchill, she became head of a clandestine army in World War II. Her team went deep behind enemy lines, linked up with resistance fighters, destroyed vital targets, helped Allied pilots escape capture, assassinated German soldiers, and radioed information back to London. As the biographer of her mentor in the SOE, William Stevenson was the only person Vera Atkins trusted to record her story.
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Horrible narration - don’t purchase
- By ballymerrigan on 12-27-18
By: John Guy
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The Confidante
- The Untold Story of the Woman Who Helped Win WWII and Shape Modern America
- By: Christopher C. Gorham
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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With a disarming mix of charm and Tammany-hewn toughness, Rosenberg began her career in public relations in 1920s Manhattan. As FDR's unofficial adviser, Rosenberg soon wielded enormous influence—no less potent for being subtle. Her extraordinary career continued after his death. By 1950, she was tapped to become the assistant secretary of defense—the highest position ever held by a woman in the US military—prompting Senator Joe McCarthy to wage an unsuccessful smear campaign against her.
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Part History, Part Promotion
- By D. Bucks on 06-07-23
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OSS
- The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency
- By: Richard Harris Smith
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the months before World War II, FDR prepared the country for conflict with Germany and Japan by reshuffling various government agencies to create the Office of Strategic Services - America's first intelligence agency and the direct precursor to the CIA. When he charged William ("Wild Bill") Donovan, a successful Wall Street lawyer and Wilkie Republican, to head up the office, the die was set for some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the US government has ever conducted.
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Evan's Review
- By Evan on 01-23-20
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Donovan
- America’s Master Spy
- By: Richard Dunlop, William Stephenson - foreword
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The fascinating biography of the man who laid the foundation for the CIA. One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.
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Fascinating Biography
- By Jean on 10-15-14
By: Richard Dunlop, and others
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Into the Lion's Mouth
- The True Story of Dusko Popov: Word War II Spy, Patriot, and the Real-Life Inspiration for James Bond
- By: Larry Loftis
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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James Bond has nothing on Dusko Popov. A double agent for the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6, and the FBI during World War II, Popov seduced numerous women, spoke five languages, and was a crack shot, all while maintaining his cover as a Yugoslavian diplomat....
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A boring account of exciting events.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-30-18
By: Larry Loftis
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Collateral Damage
- The Mysterious Deaths of Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Kilgallen, and the Ties that Bind Them to Robert Kennedy and the JFK Assassination
- By: Mark Shaw
- Narrated by: Phil Thron
- Length: 21 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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If there had been no cover-up of Robert Kennedy's complicity in the murder of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 and he had been prosecuted based on compelling evidence at the time, the assassination of JFK by Bobby's enemies would not have happened - changing the course of history and preventing the murder of media icon Dorothy Kilgallen.
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Author Makes Unsubstantiated Claim About Trump
- By Gordon Moncibais on 06-02-21
By: Mark Shaw
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Texas Ranger
- The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde
- By: John Boessenecker
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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From the horseback days of the Old West through the gangster days of the 1930s, Hamer stood on the front lines of some of the most important and exciting periods in American history. He participated in the Bandit War of 1915, survived the climactic gunfight in the last blood feud of the Old West, battled the Mexican Revolution's spillover across the border, protected African Americans from lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan, and ran down gangsters, bootleggers, and Communists.
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I love Frank Hamer, but Boessenecker's left leanin
- By A. Taylor on 04-06-19
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A Very Private Woman
- The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer
- By: Nina Burleigh
- Narrated by: Siiri Scott
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1964, Mary Pinchot Meyer, the beautiful, rebellious, and intelligent ex-wife of a top CIA official, was killed on a quiet Georgetown towpath near her home. Mary Meyer was a secret mistress of President John F. Kennedy, whom she had known since private school days, and after her death, reports that she had kept a diary set off a tense search by her brother-in-law, newsman Ben Bradlee, and CIA spymaster James Jesus Angleton. But the only suspect in her murder was acquitted, and today her life and death are still a source of intense speculation.
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Easier to listen to than to read
- By Cheaton on 06-05-20
By: Nina Burleigh
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The Ghosts of Africa
- A Novel
- By: William Stevenson
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 16 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In German-occupied East Africa during World War I, British forces have arrived. In defiance of his orders, German military commander Paul von Lettow enlists soldiers, civilians, and African rebels to fight against the British, forming the first modern guerrilla uprising of the time. Amid his political battles, Lettow is embroiled in a romantic relationship with an American woman who loves him, but who objects to his war.
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Insiteful
- By Gitonga MMbijjewe on 12-26-20
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The Secrets of the Notebook
- A Woman's Quest to Uncover Her Royal Family Secret
- By: Eve Haas
- Narrated by: Jane Carr
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Eve Haas is the daughter of a German Jewish family that took refuge in London after Hitler came to power. Following a terrifying air raid in the blitz, her father revealed the family secret - that her great-great grandmother Emilie was married to a Prussian prince. He then showed her the treasured leather-bound notebook inscribed to Emilie by the prince.
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Completely uneventful
- By Natalie on 01-03-17
By: Eve Haas
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The Zhivago Affair
- The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book
- By: Peter Finn, Petra Couvée
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In May of 1956, an Italian publishing scout took a train to the Russian countryside to visit the country's most beloved poet, Boris Pasternak. He left concealing the original manuscript of Pasternak's much anticipated first novel, entrusted to him with these words from the author: "This is Doctor Zhivago. May it make its way around the world." Pasternak knew his novel would never be published in the Soviet Union, where the authorities regarded it as an assault on the 1917 Revolution, so he allowed it to be published in translation all over the world.
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Read this to understand Doctor Zhivago and Russia
- By KathrynVB on 10-16-14
By: Peter Finn, and others
incredible
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I was left marveling at the cast of characters, from Chuck Yeager to William E. Colby, who crossed her path and even worked beside her, as well as those post-war leaders who obstructed SOE’s efforts and obliterated SOE’s achievements.
What we call courage, she called integrity, and our children will be bitter that we confuse those words.
She won WWII, despite British priggery
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For those well versed in WWII history
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About time her genius was celebrated.
If they had stars on the wall in England, like at CIA she would deserve three.
Narrator's matter-of-fact voice makes her accomplishments more dramatic.
Amazing- Helps Make up for Misogyny in Time of War
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If you could sum up Spymistress in three words, what would they be?
The content of the book is fascinating, but the narrator speaks too fast. It takes such concentration to follow the book because of the fast reading and the jam-packed content. Generally I prefer audiobooks to actually reading a book, but in this case, I'd prefer to read the book.Narrator speaks too fast
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Much of the book speaks to the rise of Hitler in the 1930's, and the efforts of Vera Adkins and others to stay aware of the Nazi efforts to take control of Germany. Many in England thought they could appease Hitler and make deals with him, and didn't understand that he would never honor those deals. Many people in government still believed they could control Hitler, and that what he did
in Europe, or to the Jews, wasn't their business. Some still thought they could wage war - if it even came to that - on horseback and that mechanized weapons were unnecessary!
Before Churchill was Prime Minister he realized he needed two things - good information from Europe, and an agile, independent force who could strike at Hitler's forces. Vera Adkins was instrumental in setting up and running such an organization. She had very little support from the government, and there were those in power who actively worked against her. They couldn't see that her people got results, with better effect than the old-fashioned ways of the entrenched government officials. In the end, the work of the Special Operations Executive shortened the war by several months. After the war one American official stated that if SOE had been fully funded the war might have ended a year or more earlier. The SOE was the beginning of modern spying, and was the example used in the US to begin the Green Berets in the Viet Nam war, and probably Seal Team 6.
The book isn't easy to listen to, because the narrative jumps between places, times and people. The narrator doesn't pause between these transitions so I had to listen closely to keep up. It's not a story that has an obvious beginning, middle and end. Rather, it's a retelling of a time when most people just wanted to get on with their lives and pretend everything was ok, while the ground beneath them was shifting in unimaginable ways. Vera Adkins and others like her were trying to keep up with the shifts and undercurrents that were driving their world towards war, and doing everything thing they could to keep up with changes and do anything they could to stop or slow down the Nazis.
If you're a history buff you'll find this fascinating. The parallels between the 1930's and today are startling, in the US and around the world. We can say Never Again, but maybe history is repeating itself.
One woman's vision that helped end WWII
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Dry, yet interesting
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too dense to listen to
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I loved the quiet professional voice of the narrator!
The book is interesting and I highly recommend it. I have listened and read many books on this topic but this was new and informative.
Karin G
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It a story that needed to be told.
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