Ben Macintyre. (2012). Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Ben Macintyre. 2012. Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Books on Tape.

Ben Macintyre, Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Books on Tape, 2012.

Ben Macintyre. Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2012.

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   • fileAs: Macintyre, Ben
   • bioText: Ben Macintyre is a writer-at-large for The Times of London and the bestselling author of Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, The Napoleon of Crime, and Forgotten Fatherland, among other books.
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “superb [and] intensely readable” (The Washington Post) untold story of one of the greatest deceptions of World War II and the extraordinary spies who achieved it—from the bestselling author of Prisoners of the Castle

“Not since Ian Fleming and John le Carré has a spy writer so captivated readers.”—The Hollywood Reporter

On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful deception operation ever carried out, ensuring Allied victory at the most pivotal moment in the war. 
 
This epic event has never before been told from the perspective of the key individuals in the Double Cross system, until now. These include its director (a brilliant, urbane intelligence officer), a colorful assortment of MI5 handlers (as well as their counterparts in Nazi intelligence), and the five spies who formed Double Cross’s nucleus: a dashing Serbian playboy, a Polish fighter-pilot, a bisexual Peruvian party girl, a deeply eccentric Spaniard, and a volatile Frenchwoman. Together they made up one of the oddest and most brilliant military units ever assembled. 

With the same depth of research, eye for the absurd, and masterful storytelling that have made Ben Macintyre an international bestseller, Double Cross is a captivating narrative of the spies who wove a web so intricate it ensnared Hitler’s army and carried thousands of D-Day troops across the Channel in safety.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: People
   • content:

     "Gripping stories from the perspective of a remarkable ragtag group of spies who tricked the Nazis in an astounding D-Day deception. Puts other spy tales to shame."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Boston Globe
     
   • content: "It should be said loud and clear that Macintyre is a supremely gifted storyteller. He spins quite a yarn. His books are absurdly entertaining. I would kill for his keen wit. He takes us into a world of bounders, spivs, roués, and men (and women) on the make....Double Cross is a blast."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Washington Times
   • content: "Forget fiction when you are buying beach reading this summer. Ben Macintyre's factual account is more gripping than what you will find anywhere else. It is a story unsurpassed in the long history of intelligence."
4. • premium: False
   • source: New Yorker
   • content: "Macintyre at once exalts and subverts the myths of spycraft, and has a keen eye for absurdity"
5. • premium: False
   • source: San Francisco Chronicle
   • content: "[A] complex, absorbing final installment in his trilogy about World War II espionage....Macintyre is a master storyteller. Employing a wry wit and a keen eye for detail, he delivers an ultimately winning tale fraught with European intrigue and subtle wartime heroics."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Washington Post
   • content: "Superb....the story comes alive again in all its stupendous, unimaginable duplicity....intensely readable"
7. • premium: False
   • source: Christian Science Monitor
   • content: "A wonderfully entertaining story of deception and trickery that is told with verve and wit....Macintyre's early books about espionage in World War II have been bestsellers, and this will be no exception."
8. • premium: False
   • source: Columbus Dispatch
   • content: "Macintyre revels in the surreal aspects of his story, writing with a breezy, almost tongue-in-cheek style. But the author is also adept at communicating the seriousness and the stakes of the underlying game....Nail-biting and chuckle-inducing reading."
9. • premium: False
   • source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
   • content: "Another captivating, improbably fresh story of World War II....Double Cross is ennobling, invigorating and, above all, entertaining. Macintyre's research is impressive, as is his ability to shape disparate facts into a breathless page-turner....Throw in nail-biting suspense and the occasional decadent Nazi (fickle mistress optional) and, with Macintyre in charge, you're virtually guaranteed a history book that reads like a spy novel."
10. • premium: False
    • source: Wall Street Journal
    • content: "
      "It is the riveting tales of these agents on which Ben Macintyre focuses, to full advantage, in Double Cross....Macintyre makes good use of the material. He knows how to let the high drama unfold on its own."
11. • premium: False
    • source: New York Post, Required reading
      
    • content: "London Times writer Macintyre (Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat) concludes his WWII espionage trilogy with the tantalizing tale of an oddball, 'Dirty Dozen'-like group of double agents who fool the Nazis into believing the Allied D-Day attack would come at Calais, not Normandy."
12. • premium: False
    • source: Seattle Times
    • content: "A tale of smarts, personal courage and -- even knowing what happened on June 6, 1944 -- suspense. Where would we be if these troubled, eccentric and hang-it-all characters hadn't known how to lie, and lie well?"
13. • premium: False
    • source: Entertainment Weekly
    • content: "As in his earlier best-sellers about WWII-era spycraft, Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat, Macintyre writes with novelistic flair."
14. • premium: False
    • source: New York Post
    • content: "The story of D-Day -- when 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy -- as it's never been told before....this amazing story shows how double agents and spies tricked the German army and saved thousands of Allied lives."
15. • premium: False
    • source: WWII Magazine
    • content: "Only with author Ben Macintyre's scintillating account has this complex human drama, with all its tortuous twists and turns, finally received the cinematic treatment it deserves....This is edge-of-the seat stuff."
16. • premium: False
    • source: MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History
    • content: "Macintyre does a fine job depicting this extraordinary cast and exposing the ambiguous world of espionage....compelling."
17. • premium: False
    • source: Publishers Weekly (starred)
    • content: "With the same skill and suspense he displayed in Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag....Macintyre effortlessly weaves the agents' deliciously eccentric personalities with larger wartime events to shape a tale that reads like a top-notch spy thriller."
18. • premium: False
    • source: Booklist
    • content: "Macintyre has written a tense, exciting real-life spy story that illuminates a largely obscure aspect of WWII."
19. • premium: False
    • source: Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt and Destiny of the Republic
      
    • content: "With his latest book, Double Cross, Ben Macintyre tells the astonishing true stor
20. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content: Ben MacIntyre's DOUBLE CROSS is a story of the unsung heroes of WWII, British spies who posed as agents for the Third Reich. It's a true story, based on documents only recently released, and a must for history buffs. John Lee does an expert job narrating the book, which is complicated by dozens of ethnic characters, each with a particular dialect and peculiar mannerisms. The story can be appreciated as an audiobook, but a WWII aficionado will need the actual book to keep track of all the characters. Lee's performance emphasizes that double agents were not the square-jawed patriots seen in movies. They had strange motives and psychological compulsions and were a petty odd lot, yet responsible for the Allies' victory. M.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
21. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from May 14, 2012
      “Any method of seeking the truth can also be used to plant a lie.” Therein lies the root of the brilliantly dangerous Allied plan (which MI5 called Double Cross)—recounted by Macintyre with the same skill and suspense he displayed in Operation Mincemeat and Agent Zigzag—to throw off the Germans and launch an assault at Normandy on June 6, 1944. The key to the plan—convincing Germany that the impending attack would come either at Pas de Calais or in Norway—was the careful manipulation of five double agents, each feeding misinformation back to their German handlers. Polish zealot Roman Czerniawski volunteered his services to his German captors, only to defect to Britain and become “Agent Brutus.” Serbian playboy Dusan Popov (“Agent Tricycle”) became one of MI5’s most prized assets. Failed Catalan chicken farmer Juan Pujol (“Agent Garbo”) badgered both German and British intelligence services into accepting him, eventually becoming the linchpin of the D-Day ploy. Lily Sergeyev (“Agent Treasure”), a high-strung Frenchwoman, had the opportunity to blow the whole operation with a single punctuation mark, while Elvira de la Fuente Chaudoir (“Agent Bronx”) transformed from a gambling Peruvian society girl to solid double agent. Macintyre effortlessly weaves the agents’ deliciously eccentric personalities with larger wartime events to shape a tale that reads like a top-notch spy thriller. Photos, map. Agent: Ed Victor, Ed Victor Ltd.

22. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from December 24, 2012
      It would be hard to imagine any narrator doing a better job with the rich material contained in this true-life thriller than John Lee does in this audio edition. Macintyre is a master of the art of digesting massive amounts of material and winnowing out the details that matter. He's done just that in this riveting account of the British Double-Cross System, which waged a covert disinformation campaign against the Nazis to maximize the chances of victory on D-Day. The account proves that truth is stranger than fiction, and the twists in the story and the eccentricities of the characters present the narrator with a serious challenge: he must convince the listener to accept that these events and people were real. For the duration of the audiobook, Lee knocks it out of the park, proving equally adept in voicing action scenes and bizarre incidents. His deadpan, dry delivery allows the material to speak for itself. The result is an entertaining and unforgettable listen. A Crown hardcover.

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “superb [and] intensely readable” (The Washington Post) untold story of one of the greatest deceptions of World War II and the extraordinary spies who achieved it—from the bestselling author of Prisoners of the Castle

“Not since Ian Fleming and John le Carré has a spy writer so captivated readers.”—The Hollywood Reporter

On June 6, 1944, 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy and suffered an astonishingly low rate of casualties. A stunning military achievement, it was also a masterpiece of trickery. Operation Fortitude, which protected and enabled the invasion, and the Double Cross system, which specialized in turning German spies into double agents, tricked the Nazis into believing that the Allied attacks would come in Calais and Norway rather than Normandy. It was the most sophisticated and successful...

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