The Traitor Beside Her

April 1, 2023

After an abbreviated training period, 21-year-old Justine Byrne is given her first undercover assignment during World War II. She's to work as a secretary at the site of a massive cryptoanalysis operation run by the Army in Washington, DC. She's also told not to trust anyone. There's a traitor in the department who's responsible for blowing up a bridge in Europe and killing a family and a number of Allies. Posing as Samantha Ogletree, a minister's daughter, Justine will attempt to root out the spy--but her cover is blown when a family friend recognizes her and grabs her to work as his assistant. Her friend Georgette takes on Justine's original job and identity as Samantha. Together, the two young women ask apparently innocent questions of others in the cryptoanalysis department, hoping to uncover a traitor. But their shortened training periods and lack of weapons endanger both of them when the traitor feels trapped. VERDICT World War II and espionage novels are popular, and the author of the Faye Longchamp mysteries brings both together in a story of young women undercover on the home front. Suggest for Joyce St. Anthony fans.--Lesa Holstine

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 24, 2023
Evans follows up The Physicists’ Daughter with a lackluster second thriller featuring factory worker Justine Byrne. In 1944, U.S. Army Intelligence recruits Justine to Virginia’s Arlington Hall, a women’s college that’s been transformed into an American code-breaking facility. Despite her gifts for cryptanalysis, Justine’s handler, Paul, hasn’t stationed her there to crack enemy messages—he’s certain that Arlington Hall has been infiltrated by an enemy agent who has already disrupted the Allied war efforts and caused several deaths, and he wants her to ferret out the traitor. That traitor may also be responsible for the strangulation of a woman working for the head of the German code-cracking division. Justine’s mole hunt, interspersed with her fending off unwelcome suitors as she embarks on a relationship with Paul, packs a certain amount of inherent drama, but it’s largely undone by thin characters and purple prose (“Justine would always wonder if anyone saw her face when the first light of realization began to dawn”). Maisie Dobbs this is not. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins & Assoc.

May 15, 2023
Two young women work to root out spies on the homefront in 1944. Justine Byrne, who's already used the knowledge of physics she learned from her parents to stop industrial espionage, is working as a welder at the Washington Navy Yard in an effort to catch more spies. She's partnered with Jerry Jenkins and Paul, his mysterious boss, who've shepherded her and her best friend, Georgette, through a rapid course on spycraft; the stint at the Navy Yard is intended to show her how much she still has to learn. Soon Justine is sent to Arlington Hall, the headquarters of an operation to intercept, decrypt, and translate enemy messages, where it's hoped that her excellent German and knowledge of code-breaking will help her find the spy or spies. As Samantha Ogletree, she's supposed to be an assistant to Dr. Edison van Dorn, who leads the German section, but her plans quickly change when Dr. Karl Becker recognizes her as the daughter of his old friends Isabel and Gerard Byrne, rendering her disguise useless. Working for Karl--who thinks she's been sent in as his assistant--actually puts Justine in a better position to meet and interact with potential spies, and Paul loses no time in bringing in Georgette to take over the job with van Dorn. Any number of Justine's co-workers are acting suspiciously, and at least two of them take a romantic interest in her. After several women who live in the dorm vanish and one of them turns up murdered, the roommates realize they're in danger of sharing the same fate unless they can uncover the truth. An exciting read with historical tidbits, a hint of danger, and a touch of romance.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.