The Lipstick Bureau

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.