Dragonfly
by Leila Meacham is a spellbinding novel. The story from the
very first line pulls readers into the mystery: which of the
five American spies embedded in Nazi occupied Paris has survived?
The dramatic scenes are riveting as each character plays a
cat and mouse game with the Nazis.
The code name “Dragonfly” came about when Meacham
saw “on my end table was a little box and on the top
lid was a dragonfly. There was also an inscription, which
I used in the book, “The sun on the hill forgot to die,
and the lilies revived, and the dragonfly came back to dream
on the river.” It is a great translation for the reality
of the plot. The French did not die, and the spies that lived
went back to the river to reunite eighteen years later. I
had one of my characters, Brad, point out that Dragonflies
are almost impossible to snare and have no blind spots. Their
eyes wrap around their heads like a football helmet to give
them a three-hundred-sixty-degree view. Dragonflies have no
vulnerable areas and can see all around. They are natural
escape artists. Dragonflies do not track their prey. They
would calculate the insect’s location, direction, and
speed, then lay in wait in their prey’s flight path
for the chow to fly right into their mouths Similarly, the
team of spies would be inserted directly into the enemy’s
line of sight without the target being aware of their presence.”
In 1942, Americans Brad, Bridgette, Bucky, Chris, and Victoria
have been recruited as spies for the CIA’s Office of
Special Services. They are recruited for their skills, but
also have a personal agenda. The two women and three men are
from very different backgrounds: Texan athlete with German
roots, an upper-crust son of a French mother and a wealthy
businessman, a dirt-poor Midwestern fly fisherman, an orphaned
fashion designer, and a ravishingly beautiful female fencer.
Each is assigned a new identity as well as a code name. (
It seems like a lot to keep track of, but there's a cast of
characters at the beginning of the book, and Meacham does
a great job intertwining all the names throughout the story.)
The team is code-named “Dragonfly,” and upon arrival
in Paris, the group disperses and sets about to fulfill their
individual missions while also pursuing their own agendas.
Not allowed to share their identity, it was planned that they
would meet on a certain date in a certain place at a certain
time after the war.
An added bonus is how their cover stories offer surprising
glimpses of daily life for the French and their German occupiers.
Vividly portrayed is the treachery in German-occupied Paris
that constantly existed for those working to remove Hitler
and the Nazis. This includes those Germans plotting against
Hitler as they extricate others from his machine in the hope
of saving Germany.
“I wrote in the book how Hitler ordered 16,000 Jews
murdered at Pinsk in the Soviet Union, and how SS troops locked
200 Polish Jews into a synagogue and set it afire. I also
wrote how Hitler expected the German youth to be physically
strong and if not they were basically tortured, such as water
dunking, beatings, and the requirement that the student stand
on his toes with arms outstretched for an unendurable length
of time. My character, German Major General Konrad March,
was horrified when he learned of these.”
Furthermore, “I pointed out that the Nazis were against
celebrating the Christmas holiday. One of my characters, General
March, was also horrified as he described how German soldiers
were ordered by Hitler to pass out posters that forbade any
display of the Christian elements. Shops were ordered to replace
their Christmas toys with tanks, fighter planes, and machine
guns. The star on top of the Christmas tree was to be replaced
with a swastika. They emphasized that Christmas was not about
the coming of Jesus, but the coming of Hitler who they are
to consider the real savior of the world. Such a nasty regime.
This clever, suspenseful, and character-driven plot is not
the typical espionage story. It is uplifting and shows the
close bond where each spy considered the others in the team
part of their family. The novel takes readers on a journey
with the characters as they attempt to navigate and defeat
the Nazi regime. This story is as compelling and riveting
a novel as Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale.
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