During WWII the successful British invasion of France depends on the Germans not knowing where it will happen. It also depends on a harbor for the ships to land and men to deploy. This limits the possible sites of invasion and makes it easier for the Germans to defend those few sites.

Until the British devise a plan whereby huge container ships can be floated across the channel and sunk offshore, creating a new harbor.

It’s a plan that must be kept from the Germans.

Although many of the Nazi spies have been rounded up and either killed or converted to British assets, there are still spies in England. Some have been established there for years and are sleepers until the time is right. One of the woman sleepers has killed a solitary woman and assumed her identity. One hates the British. He’s Irish and his brother was killed by them. Others can be brought in by submarine across the short stretch of channel and landed on desolate bits of coast.

Inside the halls of power, the Nazi spymasters have several competing spy organizations. The British also have competing units. It’s not clear where loyalties belong.

It’s a complicated and twisty story. I enjoyed the historical aspects the best. ( )

Scanned certain parts. Decided I did not want to finish it because it was fiction. I like to know what really happened and not confuse my understanding with fictional accounts where I don't know what is true and what is not ( )

Scanned certain parts. Decided I did not want to finish it because it was fiction. I like to know what really happened and not confuse my understanding with fictional accounts where I don't know what is true and what is not ( )

Alfred Vicary is a history professor turned spy runner just before D-Day in WWII. Catherine Blake is an embedded Nazi spy who entered England in 1938 from the Netherlands. In order to obscure her real identity she killed an English woman, briefly taking her identity. In 1944, Kurt Vogel, a Nazi spy runner, activates Catherine in order to gain information about the nature, location, and time of the D-Day invasion. Vicary's job, working for Sir Basil Boothbay, is to find these spies and neutralize their network. ( )

Enero de 1944: el asalto aliado a la Europa continental parece inminente. Conocer el lugar del desembarco es vital para el alto mando alemán, tanto como lo es para los aliados que sus enemigos no lo conozcan. Por ello, británicos y estadounidenses pusieron en marcha distintos sistemas de intoxicación informativa que convenciera a los alemanes de que la invasión se produciría por un lugar distinto del proyectado. Pero hay algo que el contraespionaje británico no sabe: existe una red alemana dormida, con una cobertura perfecta, que es activada en aquel momento para averiguar lo referente al desembarco.