This biography is a younger reader version of the story of Virginia Hall, an American woman who fought discrimination over her gender and physical disability when she worked for the US State Department, left that job in Europe and to drive an ambulance for the French Army, then becomes a spy for the French Resistance during WWII, is captured several times, escapes, is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, and later works for the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War.

Virginia Hall suffered discrimination not only because she was a woman working in intelligence in the 1930’s-60’s, but also because she wore a prosthetic leg after losing hers in a hunting accident as a teenager. Even with the assistance of President Roosevelt, she could not advance in government service here in the USA, so went to work for the State Department abroad. Fluent in multiple languages and having a brilliant mind, she still struggled with discrimination. With war breaking out in Europe, she joined the war effort in France where her disability was not considered a liability. From there she joined the British Intelligence Service as a spy, finding herself at the top of the Nazi’s most-wanted list. She was pursued by the Gestapo’s infamous Klaus Barbie, known as “the Butcher of Lyon” for the torture and killing of thousands in France by his forces. Hall later becoming the most highly decorated civilian woman of WW II, and is regarded as the greatest American spy of the era.

With such an exciting plotline of espionage and danger, courage, determination, and romance, one would expect this book to be a gripping read. Unfortunately, it is not. It reads like a mediocre Reader’s Digest edition of a greater work. In this case, the greater work being A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell. Students who are interested in espionage, WW II history, and equal rights for women and those with disabilities, should read Purnell’s book instead if they can brave the violence that is glossed over in The Lady is a Spy.