Ten books exploring secret ecosystems & shadow economies

Elizabeth Heider lived in Italy for several years, working as a research analyst for the U.S. Navy. She’s currently a scientist at the European Space Agency, and her short fiction has earned recognition from the Santa Fe Writer Awards and the New Century Writer Awards.

Heider's new novel is May the Wolf Die.

At CrimeReads she tagged ten books if "you’re compelled to peel away the secrecy, to unlock clandestine systems and see what makes them tick." One title on the list:

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, WWII’s Most Dangerous Spy by Sonia Purnell

This is the extraordinary true story of Virginia Hall, an American spy who operated behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. The story utterly riveted me—because the research and writing were excellent and (most especially) because Virginia Hall is a truly remarkable and heroic woman. On her own initiative, and through the sheer force of her personality, Hall built a remarkably effective covert intelligence operation in Nazi-occupied Lyon, France. Her network included nuns and prostitutes, doctors and housewives—each of them loyal to Hall. They organized acts of sabotage against German forces, and facilitated the escape of downed Allied airmen and other refugees. Her work was so effective that the Gestapo considered her “the most dangerous of all Allied spies”. When her network was betrayed by a venal priest, Hall was forced to flee on foot over the Pyrenees Mountains into neutral Spain, a journey of over 50 miles through treacherous terrain. Oh, and did I mention? She did all this with one leg. That’s right. Virginia Hall lost her lower leg in a hunting accident prior to the war, and used a prosthetic limb she affectionately named “Cuthbert.” Despite her disability, and the fact that her cover was most definitely blown, Hall wanted back in. She hustled and trained, and altered her appearance—including filing down her teeth so that she could re-enter France and, posing as an old peasant woman in the French countryside, continue her espionage work against the Nazis, providing information that became critical for the Allies to take Paris.

Read about another book on the list.

A Woman of No Importance is among the Amazon Book Review's ten books about extraordinary “ordinary” women, Ava Glass's six top non-fiction books about real spies, and Ross Johnson's twelve essential history books.

--Marshal Zeringue