The Lipstick Bureau A novel

Based on the pioneering and pivotal OSS officer Barbara Lauwers, Gable's (The Bookseller's Secret, 2021) heroine, Niki Novotna, embraces her role within the Morale Operations team based in Rome during WWII. Far from being as benign and uplifting as it sounds, the MO squad was tasked with "black propaganda," what we would now deem disinformation, to undermine the resolve of Nazi troops. Roman prostitutes and German POWs are conscripted in schemes colorfully named Sauerkraut and Operation Cornflakes, putting Niki and her cohorts in danger of court-martial under the Geneva Convention. Yet the risk is worth it, for Niki has an ulterior motive riding on the success of her campaigns, for her family may still be in occupied Czechoslovakia. When her husband, a fellow OSS officer, becomes frustratingly unhelpful in tracking their safety, Niki eventually takes comfort in the arms of her colleague, Major William Dewart. Gable's deeply personal historical fiction vividly conjures the deprivations of war-torn Rome and the tenacity and creativity of a valiant, rag-tag group charged with changing the course of history.

Soldiers and politicians weren't the only players during World War II. Surprisingly, many of the unsung heroes were women. Gable (The Bookseller's Secret) has created a brilliant, gripping historical novel about one of those women. When the Office of Strategic Services was founded in 1942, 4,500 women worked to create and distribute misinformation to the Nazi invaders in Europe. Czechoslovakian Niki Novotná was one of those women. Highly skilled at creating propaganda to demoralize Hitler's troops, her contribution and that of many other women was a key part of the ultimate defeat of the Nazis. But her job comes at a personal cost. Separated from her husband while she works in Rome, her marriage begins to crumble. Then the Bureau is hit with charges that their tactics of disinformation and the use of POWs to disseminate that disinformation, are in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. But their work continues until the end of the war and has a profound impact on the ultimate victory of the Allied troops. VERDICT Well researched and smartly told, this novel is a must read for World War II buffs and those who like a peek behind the curtain of the role women played in it.--Jane Henriksen Baird