After her brother is killed by Nazis, sixteen-year-old Lucie, seeking a secretarial job with the Women's Army Corps, is recruited for Covert Ops, a secret off-shoot working to take down Hitler. In France, assassin Lucie is eventually reassigned to investigate top-secret Nazi project Operation Zerfall. Underdeveloped characterizations and rushed storytelling tip the thrilling premise toward a tedious execution. An author's note discusses real female spies in WWII.

A girl spy in Nazi-occupied France contends with a dastardly Nazi plot as well as treason within the Allied ranks.Sixteen-year-old Lucie, heartbroken at her beloved brother's death in action, sneaks away from home to join the Women's Army Corps. The French-speaking, white Baltimore native is promptly (if implausibly) recruited into Covert Ops, an all-female espionage division. Though tops in her class during training, Lucie struggles in the field, where the job of killing her targets after extracting all necessary information makes her too squeamish to excel. Perhaps she can please her irritable commander with her few extracted rumors of the dreadful and mysterious Operation Zerfall. Before Lucie learns anything further, Covert Ops dissolves into chaos. Despite her junior status, Lucie's sent to interrogate a defecting Nazi—about Operation Zerfall. A cinematic combat sequence later (evoking more Kill Bill than another girl-spies-in-occupied-France novel, Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity, 2012), and Lucie has all the information Covert Ops needs. But trusting the wrong person drags Lucie into a dire situation that could turn the tide of the war for Germany. Characterization is thin, but secondary characters of color provide authentic diversity. The drama builds through interrogations, explosions, shoe daggers, and Nazi mad science; the entertaining, historically genuine (though often inaccurately depicted) James Bond gadgets and weapons keep pages turning.Thrills, action, and the moral certainty of fighting Nazis drive this thriller. (Historical thriller. 12-14)

Teenage girls act as spies for the Allies in this WWII thriller primarily set in Nazi-occupied France. It-s 1943, and 16-year-old Lucie Blaise is an American serving with the Covert Ops unit of the Office of Strategic Services as an agent-in-training. Unfortunately, her lack of cold-blooded ruthlessness threatens to end her career before she can avenge her older brother, a soldier killed in action. When Covert Ops gets wind of a secret German project that could devastate Europe, Lucie and her colleagues must do whatever it takes to obtain vital information and prevent disaster. Trading the alternate history of The Only Thing to Fear for historical fiction set in our world, Richmond delivers a pulse-pounding page-turner featuring an unremittingly tense atmosphere and resourceful, fearless heroines who repeatedly defy death. However, that same tension results in a lack of emotional downtime, and the second half of the story feels rushed and underexplored, as Lucie attempts to escape back to England after being captured. Ages 12-up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (July)

Sixteen-year-old Lucie Blaise is a WWII Covert Operations agent. An American who speaks fluent French, she is a member of an all-girl espionage unit deployed to uncover the enemy's secrets and thwart their nefarious intentions. Lucie is a master of disguises and can portray a devout nun, sophisticated club singer, or innocent farm girl to her advantage. When she uncovers a Nazi scheme that involves biological warfare, a dangerous situation becomes deadly. She and her colleagues, Sabine and Tilly, are on their own as they face the explosive destruction of their headquarters, the death of their commander, and imprisonment in a horrific underground experimental laboratory. Cunning and ruthlessness come into play as an escape is made, a double agent is revealed, and a danger-filled return trip to England uncovers the treachery of an evil mastermind, possibly saving countless lives.Lucie is motivated to enlist in the Covert Operations team by the battlefield death of her beloved brother. The reader learns about Theo through letters chronicling his time as an American soldier in North Africa. Interestingly, the book's only hint of romance involves Theo and Ruthie, who he confesses to have married in one of his last letters to Lucie. The author's endnote does an admirable job of explaining the factual information that served as the foundation for the fictional content. The story's high death count, predictable characters, and unlikely conclusion contribute to a piece of historical fiction that may have a difficult time finding interested readers.Lynne Farrell Stover.