Code Name Hlne - Ariel Lawhon

Ariel Lawhon

Category: Thriller

Narrator: Barrie Kreinik

Tags: Thriller, Military, Historical Fiction

This book is based on the life of Nancy Wake, an Australian expat who worked as a reporter for Hearst in Paris just before WWII and later as a spy for the British. Lawhon throws readers into the middle of the action, as Nancy, under the alias Hlne, prepares to parachute from an RAF plane into France to help the Resistance in 1944, carrying in her head memorized lists of vital data, including bridges targeted for destruction and safe house addresses. After she lands, the story flashes back eight years, as Nancy struggles for respect and recognition as a journalist; despite her firsthand observations of Nazi brutality in 1930s Vienna, her editor is reluctant to publish a story about what shes seen. Frequent jumps in time draw out the arc of Wakes remarkable life; despite her statement early on that womens weapons of warfare were limited to silk stockings and red lipstick, by the end shes proven herself skillful at physical combat as well.