As a result, Churchill, who truly was the mastermind, wasn't badly treated for the most part, and both were kept alive as potential bargaining chips. Sansom convinced her captors that they were married, that Peter was the nephew of the British Prime Minister, and that he wasn't very bright – that she was the only one who controlled operations in the area.

This relationship is likely what saved the lives of both individuals (Churchill was arrested at the same time Sansom was). There's also a certain amount of romance Sansom and her commanding officer, Peter Churchill, fell in love during their few months together and married in 1947. The book is a non-stop roller coaster ride from start to finish it's entirely riveting, and the author doesn't let up on the tension for a minute. Loftis states that his intended narrative style is a 'blending of nonfiction and thriller,' and while this sounds challenging to accomplish, he completely succeeds. While Loftis isn't as explicit as he could have been, the tale is still horrific. Anyone even remotely familiar with WWII literature will not be surprised to read about the brutal nature of the treatment she received at the hands of her captors. The fact that she survived the ordeal – the only one of the seven captured female couriers she knew that did – is a testament to her fortitude. Sansom's career as a courier was brief (less than six months) most of the accolades awarded her are based on her endurance after her capture. But what her grandfather had told her as a child was set in granite: she was to do her duty when the time came. Like her SOE colleagues, she signed up for the war knowing that arrest was a very real possibility – almost one in two. She didn't think twice about confronting German generals or commandants, and often placed principle before prudence. She feared neither danger nor dagger, interrogation nor torture. Odette Sansom didn't drink, smoke, or swear, and to the casual observer she was quite ordinary, perhaps even boring. The book's heroine was undeniably a remarkable woman:

Code Name Lise is Larry Loftis's fascinating non-fiction account of how Sansom became WWII's most highly-decorated spy by the end of the war. After training, she was inserted into German-controlled France to act as a courier. Odette Sansom (1912 – 1995), a Frenchwoman married to a British man and living in the English countryside, left her three young daughters and a life of safety to join Great Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during WWII.

The extraordinary true story of the British spy who operated in occupied France and fell in love with her commanding officer during World War II.

Code name lise book review