Publisher's Weekly
The title's irony isn't apparent until halfway into the book; by the end, however, its reverberations are breathtaking. A young Scot raised in Paris, Philip Maclean is recruited in 1941 to run a Resistance operation in occupied France. After a year of performing modest, safe jobs, Philip is told by Churchill that an Allied invasion is imminent, and Philip's Scorpio network begins a major campaign of sabotage against the Germans. Philip is abruptly picked up by the Nazis and Scorpio wiped out; just before he's sent to Auschwitz, Philip learns that a German spy had been planted within Scorpio from the start. Forty years later Harry Chapman of British Intelligence is assigned to ferret out information in response to a question in Parliament about a secret agreement between Churchill and the Soviets that allowed the sacrifice of a non-government intelligence group. Although it's not Chapman's usual kind of job, he interviews a variety of survivors--Philip's French widow, an ex-Nazi officer, a crippled Resistance hero, a French dressmaker. Learning of the vicious competition between rival intelligence services, the professionals and the wartime amateurs, he realizes that he himself is in danger from ruthless spy veterans. Allbeury's ( A Wilderness of Mirrors ) tale is smoothly bleak.

Library Journal
Philip Maclean, an English art student living in France in 1940, escapes to England where he is recruited by British intelligence. He soon returns to France to establish Scorpio, a resistance network. Barely operational, Scorpio is betrayed and Maclean and his followers are rounded up and shipped off to concentration camps. Forty years later British intelligence officer Harry Chapman is assigned to find out who betrayed Scorpio, and why. He quickly learns that others are ready to kill to keep the truth buried forever. Allbeury offers a well-written, leisurely excursion into a mild version of espionage with interesting characters engaged in a well-crafted plot. Quietly entertaining, but not for the hard-core spy thriller fan. Recommended for large fiction collections.-- Brian Alley, Sangamon State Univ. Lib., Springfield, Ill.

Genre: Thriller