The Lost Girls of Paris

During World War II, Vera Atkins recruited young women as Special Operations Executive (SOE) operatives for Britain. She believed these girls would be ideal spies in France, able to hide in plain sight, in ways men could not. This fictionalized account shows how Atkins (named Eleanor Trigg in this novel) sought to protect and support her agents in a male-dominated war.

The story begins in 1946, after the war has ended. Grace Healey recently lost her husband, Tom. Since Tom died in a car crash on leave, Grace isn’t technically a war widow. As such, she feels isolated from the many other grieving widows of her day. She has secretly moved to New York City to avoid her family and past.

As she passes through Grand Central Station toward the law office where she works, she finds an abandoned suitcase bearing the name Trigg. Inside are photographs of a dozen women. Police are clearing the area, as someone has just been hit and killed in traffic. Curious about the identities of the women, Grace pockets the photographs.

Grace soon discovers the suitcase belonged to Eleanor Trigg, the woman who was killed. Grace learns all she can about Eleanor, the former leader of a secret wartime organization that used women as spies in Occupied Europe. Tom’s old friend, Mark, pulls strings in Washington so Grace can see government files on the women in the photographs. Records show none of them survived the war.

Alternating with Grace’s narrative are stories of Eleanor and her recruits. Eleanor’s story reveals her passionate concern for the girls she’s sent into the field and her desire to clear her name when she’s accused of letting them die in action.

The narrative also follows a single-mother-turned-SOE operative named Marie. She falls for the operation leader in France, a man named Julian. The Germans use her radio and her identity to undermine the British operation. They capture Marie and Julian and shoot Julian in front of her. Marie spends time in a concentration camp but manages to escape the Germans when the train she’s riding is bombed. She secretly returns to Britain, living quietly with her daughter until Eleanor learns she’s alive. Eleanor is on her way to see Marie when she is hit and killed.

Grace tracks down Marie. Together, the women clear Eleanor’s name. They learn their government allowed the women’s operation to be compromised so they could feed false information to the Germans. Only after the war did Eleanor learn her girls were used as pawns.