Trapeze /

When Marian Sutro, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Britain, volunteers to train as an agent for the government's ultrasecretive Special Operations Executive in World War II, she is instructed, "We like our people to learn to talk pleasantly and say nothing." The protocol requires a significant personality adjustment for Mawer's vinegary and voluble protagonist, who risks ail to spirit a prominent physicist (who also happens to be a would-be paramour from her teenage days) out of Nazi-occupied France. Marian dodges a multiplicity of unsavory individuals and enemy traps, equipped with one cyanide pill, two aliases and a memorized laundry list of agentry verbo tens. ("Don't show relief," "Never make up a cover story on the fly." "Never appear to be at a loss.") She also works in a few bedroom trysts and, in one of the mission's more outré interludes, smuggles wireless crystals in her vagina. Spiky banter and character shadings enhance what is, in the end, a collection of road-tested war-thriller gestures. They whoosh by at such velocity that you might not mind, even as you're left dangling at the denouement in cliffhanger purgatory, waiting for the sequel.

*Starred Review* Recruited initially for her fluency in speaking French, 19-year-old Marian Sutro survives rigorous training to become a valued operative in the British Special Operations Executives during World War II. Dropped into German-occupied Paris by parachute in an operation called Trapeze, she has a primary task of bringing research physicist Clement Pelletier, a man she loved at the age of 16, to England to help create the atomic bomb. The danger in Marian's work is palpable, despite the youth and beauty that is intended to make her a less likely terrorist in German eyes, as she goes about her tasks under various code names while struggling with her feelings for fellow operative Benoit, with whom she loses her virginity, and now-married Clement. Much-lauded British author Mawer vividly describes the deprivations in a war-occupied country and its once-vibrant capital and provides testimony to the courage of countless members of the French Resistance. But this is primarily a masterfully crafted homage to the 53 extraordinary women of the French section of the SOE on whose actual exploits the novel is based. With its lyrical yet spare prose and heart-pounding climax, this is a compelling historical thriller of the highest order.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist

Mawer follows his Man Booker-shortlisted The Glass Room with another WWII novel based on the fascinating true story of Englishwomen whose French-language fluency led them to be deployed, via parachute, into France as agents of the resistance. The young Marian Sutro is one such woman, recruited to join the mission that gives Mawer his title, which sends her behind enemy lines in occupied France and connects her with loves both old and new. Though Marian's naivete and willful carelessness make her an improbable operative, her (somewhat convenient) ties to scientists researching the atomic bomb put her in a powerful and dangerous position. Slow to start (Marian's drop into France comes well into the story), the novel picks up when she navigates the dangerous world of occupied Paris, constantly questioning who she can trust and who will betray her. While the history behind this story is captivating, Mawer's take unfolds with inertia, is leaden with research that often feels unnecessary to the story, and is plagued with undeveloped characters, particularly his young heroine. Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord Literistic. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Nineteen-year-old Marian Sutro is doing her part to support the British war effort as a member of the Women's Auxillary Air Force (WAAF). She is strong, tenacious, and flawlessly fluent in French. These attributes lead the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to recruit her for sabotage and espionage work in German-occupied France. Marian's mission is further complicated when she is ordered to find and convince an old flame, now a physicist working on a new bomb, to join the Allies. VERDICT Blending fact with fiction, Mawer's (The Glass Room) latest novel is a historical spy thriller with a realistic feminine voice that should appeal to a wide readership. The writing is fast-paced and engrossing. Occasional dry spots are juiced up with plenty of Paris dazzle, heart, and action. [See Prepub Alert, 2/27/12; for a nonfiction account of the SOE's activities, see Sarah Helm's A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII.-Ed.]-Therese Oneill, Monmouth, OR (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.