This book explores the idea of what if, genetically, there were folks whose faces were completely unremarkable, almost invisible to others' memories, and they worked as spies during WWII? What if they were put to work, even -- or especially -- as children spying on Hitler? In an attempt to assassinate him?
In this unorthodox spy tale, young Alice's older sister, Louise, opts out of a life of anonymity and forever being forgotten with plastic surgery on her face to make it memorable. At the same time, Louisa (her new identity as a non-spy) seems to lose her ability remember her sister, Alice, at all.
Alice mourns the loss of her sister, but eagerly awaits her first top-level mission: joining her father in Germany's Reich, where her dad fixes the automobiles for Hitler and his top aides. Alice's mission? Provide intel for Operation Valkyrie, an assassination attempt on Hitler. Her role? To rise to the top of her class and be named to Hitler's household, as a servant and sometimes actress in the plays put on in the Führerbunker, and report on Hitler's mental status.
She meets a Jewish boy living homeless under the nose of one of Hitler's top aides. David not only sees Alice, he never forgets her. But Alice fails to catch, in David's unflagging awareness of her, the warning signs that her genetic invisibility is not as iron-clad as she needs it to be. To the reader, it's an ominous foreshadowing of what's to come.
And it does come, after a shared dance with her sister, Louisa, just like old times. Alice stands out from the crowd around Hitler. She's downright memorable. And that is life-threatening to a spy.
This is a very different type of WWII spy book. For all its fantasy premise, it highlights the horrible and morally questionable things spies of all ages have to do during war.
