The Last Goodnight: A World War II Story of Espionage, Adventure, and Betrayal – A Riveting Biography of Betty Pack: The American Spy Whose Secrets Changed History
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Dark Invasion, channels Erik Larson and Ben Macintyre in this riveting biography of Betty Pack, the dazzling American debutante who became an Allied spy during WWII and was hailed by OSS chief General “Wild Bill" Donovan as “the greatest unsung heroine of the war.”
Betty Pack was charming, beautiful, and intelligent—and she knew it. As an agent for Britain’s MI-6 and then America’s OSS during World War II, these qualities proved crucial to her success. This is the remarkable story of this “Mata Hari from Minnesota” (Time) and the passions that ruled her tempestuous life—a life filled with dangerous liaisons and death-defying missions vital to the Allied victory.
For decades, much of Betty’s career working for MI-6 and the OSS remained classified. Through access to recently unclassified files, Howard Blum discovers the truth about the attractive blond, codenamed “Cynthia,” who seduced diplomats and military attachés across the globe in exchange for ciphers and secrets; cracked embassy safes to steal codes; and obtained the Polish notebooks that proved key to Alan Turing’s success with Operation Ultra.
Beneath Betty’s cool, professional determination, Blum reveals a troubled woman conflicted by the very traits that made her successful: her lack of deep emotional connections and her readiness to risk everything. The Last Goodnight is a mesmerizing, provocative, and moving portrait of an exceptional heroine whose undaunted courage helped to save the world.
Drawn from recently declassified files, this is the definitive portrait of the woman codenamed Cynthia. What drove an American debutante to become one of WWII's most audacious spies?
- Seduction as a Weapon: Follow Betty as she charms diplomats and military attachés, trading passion for priceless secrets and ciphers vital to the war effort.
- High-Stakes Espionage: Go inside daring missions to crack embassy safes, steal enemy codes, and obtain the critical intelligence that gave Alan Turing a key to breaking the Enigma code.
- A Complex Heroine: Discover the private turmoil of a woman conflicted by her own success—a brilliant operative hailed as a hero, yet haunted by the emotional detachment that made her the perfect spy.
- Declassified History: Uncover the truth behind the legendary agent "Cynthia," pieced together from recently unearthed OSS and MI-6 files that reveal her full, astonishing story for the first time.
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Community Reviews
Book parts
Part I STORMING THE CASTLE
Part II “A TERRIBLE RESTLESSNESS”
Part III “HIDDEN IN MY YESTERDAYS”
Part IV ENIGMA
Part V THE LONG WAY HOME
Part VI WASHINGTON
Part VII BIG BILL AND LITTLE BILL
Book review
It's weird that a book with such an engaging topic is so ... pointless. The audiobook narration is top-notch. The 1930's and WW2 setting is great in principle. The various countries make it more engaging. And there are some spy missions too. But it's probably the most dull spy book I have read. Obviously there a giant hole in the women during WW2 genre. And a giant hole in the female spies genre too. This is why most female spies in media are fully made up and often replacing a real life man who did the job. But the lack of books and real life stories about this makes sense, because this is one of the most important women during WW2 and yet she did very little and was not really great at anything.
The book is 90% about her love affairs. She was very beautiful and even from an early age used her looks to seduce men to do her bidding. At one point she got pregnant and then just walked into a bedroom of a seeming important diplomat to sleep with him. Then made him propose a marriage. But she was never faithful and it was clear that this British guy was faking importance and in reality his family was poor. And he figured her out and made her abort the fetus. Soon people started seeing him with his beautiful wife and he got promotion after promotion. His fake persona now worked. People felt he was important and therefore treated him as such. Betty meanwhile didn't like children and didn't want to be a mom. She slept with important men everywhere she went. And often men could just invite her into their bedroom or walk into hers and seduce her on the spot without even a single date prior to that. She just seemed to love sex and many men figured it out pretty fast and used her for that alone.
Because she refused to stay faithful or raise her kids, and was a diplomat's wife, she was soon asked to seduce top diplomats in other countries to make them spill secrets in bed. First in Poland then later in Spain and then in the French Vichy embassy in USA when Poland was invaded. And she had other jobs all over the world. Most men wanted to sleep with her and she even offered them money on top of that. Enough to convince many diplomats. Even older guys were pleased with the attention as they felt overlooked for promotions and underpaid. So her offering them company and money just made them feel like they were getting exactly what they deserved as is the case with many traitors. They feel like they were cheated by their country even if they have amazing and well-paid jobs. As they want and expect even more yet don't get it. And nothing ever makes them feel satisfied enough with a current status. So when offered a 20 year younger mistress and a ton of cash they just assume they finally have been seen. Even though she absolutely will not stay with them and they are just used and let go.
She slept with anyone she was asked to sleep with and easily fell in love. Then jumped from man to man to gain info or find a partner and always had both job lovers and real lovers even while being married. Largely the book is about affairs and her love life not really spy work. The only "real" spy work is described in the last 10% of the book with her actually doing more than just sleeping around. Prior to that it is just a personal biography about pointless romances leading nowhere. Even post the war she refused to live with or raise her kids and still kept sleeping around and jumping from man to man even sleeping with married men. Obviously her WW2 work is very important, but it's like she stumbled into it and then never even used it to get anywhere. She could have become rich and famous by publishing her life story. Or married a billionaire looking for a young wife. She did marry rich, but then never created a family for herself.
Most single person stories from WW2 are quite dull. The book the Pacific TV series is based on is similar and pointless too just like the TV show. A bunch of guys trying to avoid combat, avoid training, avoid doing work. And rather drink, date around, steal stuff everywhere. That's the single guy during WW2. Overall the army and spy agencies did amazing work collectively, but most of these people were grunt workers and actually liked drinking more than working. Betty was the same. She was young and attractive and that's it. At one point she was told to open a safe and take some photos of secret documents. That's pretty much her only expertise and was only used for one job. And lo and behold she even failed at that. Her only real job and she couldn't handle it. I think she knew she didn't really have any special skills. Which is fine, but it makes for a dull biography.
The book is just not focused. All the dating stories are boring and pointless yet there is not much else to tell here. I think a simple 150 page book focused on only the spy stuff would be a better idea. It has been done before. And everything past that is filler for women and men during WW2. Unless they were leaders. If they led a group somewhere they have more stories. And they also could tell a focused story about their patriotism. They felt important and felt they were doing important work. So they were extremely proud of themselves. They didn't have a need to steal anything or sleep around either. Their stories are engaging to a larger degree. Band of Brothers is just such a story. And while the book is not amazing either the TV show makes it work.
Part I STORMING THE CASTLE
Part II “A TERRIBLE RESTLESSNESS”
Part III “HIDDEN IN MY YESTERDAYS”
Part IV ENIGMA
Part V THE LONG WAY HOME
Part VI WASHINGTON
Part VII BIG BILL AND LITTLE BILL
Book review
It's weird that a book with such an engaging topic is so ... pointless. The audiobook narration is top-notch. The 1930's and WW2 setting is great in principle. The various countries make it more engaging. And there are some spy missions too. But it's probably the most dull spy book I have read. Obviously there a giant hole in the women during WW2 genre. And a giant hole in the female spies genre too. This is why most female spies in media are fully made up and often replacing a real life man who did the job. But the lack of books and real life stories about this makes sense, because this is one of the most important women during WW2 and yet she did very little and was not really great at anything.
The book is 90% about her love affairs. She was very beautiful and even from an early age used her looks to seduce men to do her bidding. At one point she got pregnant and then just walked into a bedroom of a seeming important diplomat to sleep with him. Then made him propose a marriage. But she was never faithful and it was clear that this British guy was faking importance and in reality his family was poor. And he figured her out and made her abort the fetus. Soon people started seeing him with his beautiful wife and he got promotion after promotion. His fake persona now worked. People felt he was important and therefore treated him as such. Betty meanwhile didn't like children and didn't want to be a mom. She slept with important men everywhere she went. And often men could just invite her into their bedroom or walk into hers and seduce her on the spot without even a single date prior to that. She just seemed to love sex and many men figured it out pretty fast and used her for that alone.
Because she refused to stay faithful or raise her kids, and was a diplomat's wife, she was soon asked to seduce top diplomats in other countries to make them spill secrets in bed. First in Poland then later in Spain and then in the French Vichy embassy in USA when Poland was invaded. And she had other jobs all over the world. Most men wanted to sleep with her and she even offered them money on top of that. Enough to convince many diplomats. Even older guys were pleased with the attention as they felt overlooked for promotions and underpaid. So her offering them company and money just made them feel like they were getting exactly what they deserved as is the case with many traitors. They feel like they were cheated by their country even if they have amazing and well-paid jobs. As they want and expect even more yet don't get it. And nothing ever makes them feel satisfied enough with a current status. So when offered a 20 year younger mistress and a ton of cash they just assume they finally have been seen. Even though she absolutely will not stay with them and they are just used and let go.
She slept with anyone she was asked to sleep with and easily fell in love. Then jumped from man to man to gain info or find a partner and always had both job lovers and real lovers even while being married. Largely the book is about affairs and her love life not really spy work. The only "real" spy work is described in the last 10% of the book with her actually doing more than just sleeping around. Prior to that it is just a personal biography about pointless romances leading nowhere. Even post the war she refused to live with or raise her kids and still kept sleeping around and jumping from man to man even sleeping with married men. Obviously her WW2 work is very important, but it's like she stumbled into it and then never even used it to get anywhere. She could have become rich and famous by publishing her life story. Or married a billionaire looking for a young wife. She did marry rich, but then never created a family for herself.
Most single person stories from WW2 are quite dull. The book the Pacific TV series is based on is similar and pointless too just like the TV show. A bunch of guys trying to avoid combat, avoid training, avoid doing work. And rather drink, date around, steal stuff everywhere. That's the single guy during WW2. Overall the army and spy agencies did amazing work collectively, but most of these people were grunt workers and actually liked drinking more than working. Betty was the same. She was young and attractive and that's it. At one point she was told to open a safe and take some photos of secret documents. That's pretty much her only expertise and was only used for one job. And lo and behold she even failed at that. Her only real job and she couldn't handle it. I think she knew she didn't really have any special skills. Which is fine, but it makes for a dull biography.
The book is just not focused. All the dating stories are boring and pointless yet there is not much else to tell here. I think a simple 150 page book focused on only the spy stuff would be a better idea. It has been done before. And everything past that is filler for women and men during WW2. Unless they were leaders. If they led a group somewhere they have more stories. And they also could tell a focused story about their patriotism. They felt important and felt they were doing important work. So they were extremely proud of themselves. They didn't have a need to steal anything or sleep around either. Their stories are engaging to a larger degree. Band of Brothers is just such a story. And while the book is not amazing either the TV show makes it work.
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