It was uncommon for a woman to be a spy in the early part of the 20th century, which is part of what allowed the charming and attractive Marguerite Harrison to be so successful. In her nailbiter of a biography, Flirting with Danger, Janet Wallach (The Richest Woman in America) provides a window into the captivating world of Harrison's feminine cloak-and-dagger subterfuge, the risks involved, and the personal toll it took on her.
Reeling from the sudden death of her husband, 37-year-old Marguerite Harrison withdrew emotionally from her son and threw herself into a writing career at the Baltimore Sun. She would use the cover of journalism in subsequent years as she provided reports to military intelligence from the European continent where she'd spent so much time earlier in her life as a debutante. Her fluency in German and French, as well as a preternatural talent for learning languages such as Russian, were to serve her well.
Some of her early assignments took place in Germany after the end of World War I. Presciently, she warned that the terms enforced on that country in defeat were so severe that they would lead not to the democracy that the U.S. and its allies hoped for, but to a more virulent rise of nationalism. Another assignment took her to Russia in the turbulent years following the Bolshevik Revolution. Fascinated by Russia, she spent years there, ultimately sentenced to a stay in the notorious Lubyanka women's prison. A thrilling read from start to finish, Wallach takes readers deep into the prevailing issues of the time and the spycraft employed in the form of an unlikely agent. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.