Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal | Ben Macintyre

Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal | Ben Macintyre | A roaring good story

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Agent Zigzag: A Tr...

	Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal Ben Macintyre Harmony, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fascinating and true spy story that reads like a thriller

This highly entertaining and utterly gripping book is the true story of Eddie Chapman, a British petty criminal who ended up serving as an spy for both England and Germany during World War 2, and who was hailed as a hero by both sides. "Agent Zigzag" is the name that he was given by the British authorities who were aware of his status as a double agent and used him to feed misinformation to the Germans.

Chapman's story is so full of adventure and ripe with coincidence that would be unbelievable if it were a novel. The story of how he comes to be an agent for the Germans is in itself worthy of a movie, taking us from a bank robbery in Scotland to prison - and eventual freedom - on the island of Jersey and then incarceration in the worst of Parisian prisons.

Chapman emerges as a kind of James Bond character: a handsome and charming rogue with a penchant for adventure, for gambling, fine food and fast women. He is a fascinating mass of contradictions: utterly loyal to his friends even as he betrays them, a hopeless criminal who develops into a resourceful spy. But even the minor characters leap off the pages in this tale. The photographs are also well chosen and add to the story.

Ben MacIntyre has amassed a vast amount of detail about not only Chapman, but his associates in both the German and English secret services. There is lots of interesting information about how those secret services functioned and what they achieved during the war. I was particularly riveted by the details about his training in spy techniques by the Nazis. However the book never gets bogged down in historical facts. Like the best biographies, it reads almost like fiction. I highly recommend this book.

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A roaring good story

Agent Zigzag has no deep meaning beyond the reflection that (as the Book of Proverbs says) the intentions of a man are "like deep water." But it is a roaring good story told by a master of the literary craft. Agent Zigzag takes its place with World War II classics such as Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (1953) and David Howarth, We Die Alone (1955).

A Riveting New Book

You never would have picked him but Agent Zigzag, a most unusual man, was just the person for the job. Who would have suspected he was a Nazi spy. Embarrassing to both sides but highly effective in his endeavors. I would not call him a hero, but what he accomplished was heroic. I would expect this to be made a movie in the near future. Truth is stranger than fiction for sure. This book fills in some historic holes. A truly excellent tale. Just when you thought you heard it all, the story of Agent Zigzag appears. An excellent book I would highly recommend, especially to any affecionado of WWII.

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A Great Holiday Read

This book kept me throughly engaged on a recent trip to Europe. Well written, with a sharp focus on character throughout, this is clearly the winner of the two books currently available. I was fascinated at how Chapman walked such a thin line while in contact with both UK and German
agents, and how his charm masked a very dark personality. I felt at the end he was treated miserably by the UK, just cast aside and not rewarded financially in the way he should have been. Brave he certainly was, and possessed with a criminal mind at heart. But there was always the fact that you rather liked him and admired the way he had his own standards. Agent Zigzag will keep you glued to the page.

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An Unsympathetic Spy

"Agent Zig Zag" is a far better book than "Zig Zag," the other book about Eddie Chapman, the extraordinary WWII double agent with loyalties to the Brits. However, for all the hype about these two books, neither is a "thriller," per se, and both tell what is mostly an interesting (sometimes fascinating) "period piece" story about the unlikely thief-criminal-womanizer-sociopath who became a famous -- if barely trusted -- spy for Britain. "Agent Zig Zag" is more of a psychological accounting of Chapman than anything, and yet the story does give a very well crafted "insider" view of WWII, a perspective that few other novels or books about WWII espionage ever have done -- and I've read most of them! One is left with a (though possibly quite biased) clear insight into the workings of the Abwehr and also its counter part, the British Intelligence Service. How anything ever got done by either is a small miracle. Eddie Chapman, the spy in question, is thoroughly unlikeable and wholly unsympathetic. One can admire his heroics, his risk-taking, and his sheer "bon vivant" style of being a spy and of living his life in general. He was smart, that I can give him. My criticism of the other book ("Zig Zag") is tempered by this book. "Zig Zag's" author fawns over Eddie Chapman and makes you feel guilty if you don't agree with the author's over-wrought sense of how the Brits never honored Chapman's achievements -- in other words, those "ungrateful Brits." Here, in "Agent Zig Zag" with this author, you are free to decide that for yourself. Both books, however, are flawed from this standpoint: NEITHER book spells out in clear form EXACTLY what it is that Eddie Chapman actually DID -- over the course of his engagement by both the Germans and the Brits other than the fact that he did NOT GET CAUGHT by the Germans -- to really and truly help or assist in the outcome of the war!! The people who deserve credit for whatever it is Chapman accomplished are his team of British handlers (and to a lesser extent his German handlers), those very smart men who designed his activities, who created the deceptions and who protected him from his own self-destructive ways. Most of the time, as I understood the story, whether Eddie was in Madrid, Paris, Oslo, Berlin, Lisbon or London, he lived a high and rather easy life of booze, women, and debauchery. Very little of his character is admirable and almost none of his behavior stands the test of devotion to duty or to people. He really was a jerk. He betrayed nearly everyone he ever met. He made false promises to at least 3 women who loved him, whereupon he abandoned them for other women. He remained married to one of them, Betty Farmer, throughout his life, but that marriage lasted only because Farmer did not abandon him! Today, he would be diagnosed as a psychopath or sociopath, an angry and unpredictable abuser, and alcoholic, a man with little conscience and one who rarely learned from experience -- someone who relied on his charm and false social skills to get what he wanted -- usually money, women, booze and high risk adventures -- for the thrill of it. So, what you get with this book is clear insight into the espionage scene in WWII and an in-depth psychological profile of a thoroughly despicable man, who may have helped the allied cause as a result of his recruitment to play off both sides against each other for his own fanatical need for adventure. But the question remains in my mind: just what indeed did he do -- for either side? The answer is not found in this book, no matter how well-written it is. I truly liked the book.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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