Doppelgänger: An American Spy in World War II France

By Tom Behr (E. Thomas Behr)

"If you do battle with evil, sooner or later you pick up evil's weapons yourself. Then you risk becoming what you seek to destroy."When the German army overwhelms France in June, 1940, Walter Hirsch's safe, carefully-ordered intellectual life as a writer in Paris is shattered. A choking cloud of fear--Nacht und Nebel--settles over his beloved City of Light."I'm an American, a neutral," he thinks. "This isn't my war." It becomes his war when he attracts the suspicion--and hatred--of SS Standartenf?hrer Hans Sommer.Returning to America after being badly injured when the Germans crush a student riot at the Sorbonne, he is recruited by Bill Donovan's fledgling American intelligence service, the OSS, to re-enter France as a spy. Walter's flawless German and French--and his newly-discovered ability to change cover stories like a chameleon--make him an ideal espionage agent. But his dedication to his country comes at a high price. With each brazenly successful mission and escape, the strangling noose of Sommer's relentless pursuit draws tighter. With each new lie, a little more of his identity fades, like a face in an aging sepia photograph. With each new cold-blooded execution, a little more of his soul shrivels. "Donovan was right," he realizes. "When you become a spy, the first person you have to kill is your former self."In April 1944, now with a Gestapo bounty of three million francs on his head, a burned-out Walter is ordered to scout German beach defenses and troop movement prior to the invasion of France. But the American High Command sends him to Calais, not Normandy. They cynically decide to sell Walter out to the Germans to support the Allies' critical deception about the actual landing site for the invasion.Sommer's Gestapo, tipped off by OSS leadership, ambush Water as he is about to return to England with a briefcase full of incriminating documents and photographs. Tortured by his captors, Walter clings to his life and sanity. His OSS case officer, appalled at Walter's betrayal by his own government, launches a desperate rescue mission. He enlists the support of England's most lethal SOE assassin, the "Black Widow," a woman with her own mysterious connection to Walter Hirsch.But even if the daring mission succeeds, what will remain of the man they have come to save? Can the cost of preserving freedom have become too unbearably high?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1731047878
• ISBN13: 9781731047878
• Release Date: December 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"