In this kindle single, Talty chronicles the career of Erik Ericsson, who helped defeat the Nazis by pretending to be one. Talty tells the story well, and it is a good quick read.

After reading both this and Talty's Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day, I must say Talty's biographies are a refreshing change. Too often in biographies of famous men, the biography ties him or herself into knots to excuse bad behavior OR depicts the spouse as somehow lacking. IF x was truly worthy of y, she would have understand type of thing. I'm thinking in particular of the pretzel that Ackroyd makes trying to argue that Dickens did not have sex with the young women he abandoned his wife for (Dickens' treatment of his wife is absolutely horrible) and of Ron Chernow's implying that if a pregnant Elizabeth Hamilton had just stayed in hot, disease filled NYC than good Alex would have never been unfaithful. Talty doesn't whitewash or even try to whitewash the damage that Ericsson's acts had on his wife. And his wife is not depicted as shallow or evil because she had trouble handling what her husband was doing. I cannot stress how wonderful that is to see in a biography.

Talty's book about Garbro - in reality a Spanish man, Juan Pujol Garica who sided with the UK during the Second World War - is a good biography about a mystery man. Talty presents him warts and all. Considering how in some biographies about famous men, the wives are depicted either as knowing and forgiving suffering saints, or totally at fault, Talty is understanding to Garica's first wife Araceli, in particular when detailing the family's experiences in London.

"SHE LANDED BY MOONLIGHT" is a fantastic story of a most remarkable woman, Pearl Witherington, an Englishwoman born in Paris of English parents, who carried a deep love and devotion for her adopted country France as great as her love for Britain.   

During the Second World War, Witherington managed to spirit herself, her mother, and two of her sisters out of France to Britain following France's capitulation to Nazi Germany in June 1940.   Three years later, Witherington joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), trained as an agent and was parachuted into German-occupied France in September 1943.    The book goes on to describe Witherington's achievements in the field over the following year against heavy odds.    Indeed, at one point, the Germans had learned of her identity after the leader of the spy network of which she was a part had been captured by the Gestapo in May 1944.    As a result, a ƒ1,000,000 bounty was put on Witherington's head.    Undeterred, Witherington took on a new code name ('Pauline') and led the SOE Wrestler network in operations against German forces in the Valencay–Issoudun–Châteauroux triangle of central France.     The 4,000 marquisards she organized, armed, and trained would play a significant role in tying down thousands of German soldiers after the Allies had landed in Normandy in June 1944.       

This is a story that seems too incredible to be true.  But it was all too real.    Witherington survived the war, married the man she had long loved (who had also fought with her as a member of the Resistance in 1944), and went on to live a long life.     

"SHE LANDED BY MOONLIGHT" also provides an interesting overview of SOE, how it came to be in July 1940, the opposition it faced from Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (i.e., MI-6), its organizational structure, and the contributions made by SOE's F Section (of which Pearl Witherington was a part) in France towards defeating Nazi Germany.    I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about a true 'Warrior Queen.'

I liked this way more than I expected to. Honestly, I kind of hate the art, and I generally don't like it when novelists try out graphic storytelling. But this reads as if Meyer's a comic book pro, telling a fast and fun story that feels absolutely natural in graphic format. Iko was always the most fun character out of the bunch, and despite the ugly art, this was a super enjoyable read. More please!