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Crossing by Night
🎧Run Time = 14 hours and 12 minutes
Britain faced defeat unless it could crack the Nazi's ""unbreakable"" secret coding machine. In a last-chance effort, the British Secret Service chose a gifted amateur - Elizabeth Pack - a beautiful young American of proven courage and passionate recklessness, to steal the Nazi High-Command's greatest secret. An adventure of heart-pounding intrigue that takes the listener from the Spanish Civil War to Berlin, Prague, and Warsaw, Elizabeth's perilous adventures and heated affairs climax in a breath-taking flight across Hitler's Germany on the edge of war. And Elizabeth's prize, an obscure coding machine, provides the margin of victory over Hitler in the Battle of Britain.
Crossing By Night is based on the exploits of the real-life American woman who changed the course of World War II. Her extraordinary adventures inspired Ian Fleming to create the famous James Bond.
Inspired by World War II history: In pursuit of information on Enigma, Nazi Germany’s unbreakable encryption machine, the British Secret Intelligence Service recruits American Elizabeth Pack — and she takes a pulse-pounding journey across Europe to uncover dangerous secrets.
A “suspenseful novel… The dual narration comes off well” (AudioFile).
Britain faced defeat unless it could crack the Nazi's ""unbreakable"" secret coding machine. In a last-chance effort, the British Secret Service chose a gifted amateur - Elizabeth Pack - a beautiful young American of proven courage and passionate recklessness, to steal the Nazi High-Command's greatest secret. An adventure of heart-pounding intrigue that takes the listener from the Spanish Civil War to Berlin, Prague, and Warsaw, Elizabeth's perilous adventures and heated affairs climax in a breath-taking flight across Hitler's Germany on the edge of war. And Elizabeth's prize, an obscure coding machine, provides the margin of victory over Hitler in the Battle of Britain.
Crossing By Night is based on the exploits of the real-life American woman who changed the course of World War II. Her extraordinary adventures inspired Ian Fleming to create the famous James Bond.
363 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1993
About the author
David Aaron
7Â books5Â followersDavid Aaron has served on the National Security Council in both Republican and Democratic adminstrations, from 1972 to 1974 as senior staff member and, from 1977 to 1981, as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. From 1974 to 1976, he headed an investigative task force for the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was a member of the first SALT negotiations, directed the work of the SALT II negotiations and participated in the Vienna Summit of 1979. He has been sent on sensitive presidential missions to Europe, Africa, China abd Latin Americam aand in 1981 won the National Defense Medal, the Pentagon's highest civilian award.
He lives in Weston, Connecticut.
He lives in Weston, Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 7, 2015
I found a paperback edition of this book in the visitor's lounge of the Denver hospital where my wife is currently staying. The book was published in 1993 and deals with the exploits of one (Amy) Elizabeth Thorpe Pack prior to the start of WWII.
The author (David Aaron) lets us know at the start that Elizabeth was an actual person who married a British diplomat many years older than her but adds that he's embellished the tale to make it a better reading experience for us. (The interested reader can Google Elizabeth and learn what was true, what is fiction, and discover a number of disputed points somewhere between truth and fiction.) He populates the novel with such characters as Vita Sackville-West, Winston Churchill, George VI and the Duke & Duchess of Windsor.
The basic plot (I'll try not to reveal too much) involves Elizabeth using her status as a diplomat's wife to get cozy with a Polish officer and find out as much as possible about the Pole's work on Germany's encryption machine called Enigma. Elizabeth uses her feminine charms to attract the attention of various military men and foreign diplomats, allowing them to seduce her so she can collect classified information during sessions of pillow talk. The middle of this book tends to be a bit slow but the pace picks up near the end when Elizabeth is on a train, traveling between Warsaw and Paris but must negotiate her way through Germany. It gets a bit silly at times, reminding me of an episode of "Perils of Pauline." But Elizabeth persists and rationalizes her sins, errors, and peccadilloes as necessary evils against the menace of Adolph Hitler. Besides, she's a patriot (she believes) and all is fair in love and war.
An entertaining read that filled in some historical "blanks" for me regarding the British success of decoding the Enigma.
The author (David Aaron) lets us know at the start that Elizabeth was an actual person who married a British diplomat many years older than her but adds that he's embellished the tale to make it a better reading experience for us. (The interested reader can Google Elizabeth and learn what was true, what is fiction, and discover a number of disputed points somewhere between truth and fiction.) He populates the novel with such characters as Vita Sackville-West, Winston Churchill, George VI and the Duke & Duchess of Windsor.
The basic plot (I'll try not to reveal too much) involves Elizabeth using her status as a diplomat's wife to get cozy with a Polish officer and find out as much as possible about the Pole's work on Germany's encryption machine called Enigma. Elizabeth uses her feminine charms to attract the attention of various military men and foreign diplomats, allowing them to seduce her so she can collect classified information during sessions of pillow talk. The middle of this book tends to be a bit slow but the pace picks up near the end when Elizabeth is on a train, traveling between Warsaw and Paris but must negotiate her way through Germany. It gets a bit silly at times, reminding me of an episode of "Perils of Pauline." But Elizabeth persists and rationalizes her sins, errors, and peccadilloes as necessary evils against the menace of Adolph Hitler. Besides, she's a patriot (she believes) and all is fair in love and war.
An entertaining read that filled in some historical "blanks" for me regarding the British success of decoding the Enigma.
June 25, 2009
As you might tell by the author's last initial, I have started reading alphabetically again, I have decided to switch from the new book shelves at the library to the old ones though. This is a good example of why this is not the crazy idea a lot of people might think. I would not have chosen to read this book and resisted it, but after starting it I really enjoyed it and wish it was even longer. I do like WWII books and when they are about a woman I am even more interested. This book was based on a true story, I don't know how much is true but it is hard to believe any of it!
February 16, 2025
DNF...too sexually explicit.
April 27, 2020
It is a reasonably good spy story, although it does work toward merging the espionage plot with what largely amounts to a gratuitously melodramatic romance, to middling effect. The idea that the female agent in question is left to trade upon her femininity for the "greater good" is not too bad, but the book's occasional lapses into cheesy sex scenes and emotional histrionics mostly feel awkward, and act more as distractions from the more interesting portions of the narrative, than they do to further the plot or enhance the telling.
There is, also, a coldness to the book, in that you never really get that good of a sense of (or empathy for) the characters. Part of this might well be a result of the main character being so relentlessly manipulated and passive throughout the story, which does her an enormous disservice. There are moments, here and there, where it is alluded too that she is a great deal smarter and more active than she is mostly written, and yet many of those scenes are recounted through the supporting male characters who mostly sit around and sniff in petulant disbelief that a woman could have any half-way intelligent ideas.
There is a a good concept in the book, and there are some good bits of business for the lead character by which she struggles with the necessity of what she does against the toll it would appear to take on her sense of self, and yet whenever the book tries to work its away around to this, it tends to collapse into half-baked eroticism or wildly overwritten emotional hysterics. A bit more maturity (and self-restraint) in the writing might well have created something really special but as it stands, the book is a decent enough "pot-boiler" with the trappings of a espionage tale forming the outer framework.
There is, also, a coldness to the book, in that you never really get that good of a sense of (or empathy for) the characters. Part of this might well be a result of the main character being so relentlessly manipulated and passive throughout the story, which does her an enormous disservice. There are moments, here and there, where it is alluded too that she is a great deal smarter and more active than she is mostly written, and yet many of those scenes are recounted through the supporting male characters who mostly sit around and sniff in petulant disbelief that a woman could have any half-way intelligent ideas.
There is a a good concept in the book, and there are some good bits of business for the lead character by which she struggles with the necessity of what she does against the toll it would appear to take on her sense of self, and yet whenever the book tries to work its away around to this, it tends to collapse into half-baked eroticism or wildly overwritten emotional hysterics. A bit more maturity (and self-restraint) in the writing might well have created something really special but as it stands, the book is a decent enough "pot-boiler" with the trappings of a espionage tale forming the outer framework.
February 15, 2025
3.5. Fun book. Especially if you go in with the mindset that it will read like an old Hollywood film. That means it does lean into some cringeworthy stereotypes. Also the sex scenes were…..not good. I love a good spicy scene but not the ones in this book. To me most were graphic in an icky way or outright triggering. The parts that make this fun is to see how Elizabeth becomes a spy and the twists and turns this world takes her on. To know this is based on a real woman’s accomplishments makes it that much more interesting to read.
November 2, 2018
I am not usually a spy novel reader but I picked this book up at a used book store because I was looking for something different.
Elizabeth Pack is a nineteen year old girl from a military family who marries an older man (39) who is in the British Foreign Service. The adventure that she embarks upon is far from what she expected.
I enjoyed this book very much.
Elizabeth Pack is a nineteen year old girl from a military family who marries an older man (39) who is in the British Foreign Service. The adventure that she embarks upon is far from what she expected.
I enjoyed this book very much.
March 15, 2017
Masterful work !
May 24, 2014
This book surprised me. I don't usually go for spy novels or historical fiction, but I had nothing else to read, so I picked this up. It was well written and believable without the usual overabundance of facts and jargon that former governmental workers tend to put in crime and spy novels.
One of the things that really got to me was how Elizabeth's acceptance of a hum-drum domestic life was so readily cast aside for her new role as a spy. I spent much time away from the pages wondering about what her life would have been like if she hadn't been offered the opportunity to become a spy. Would she have carried on as a dutiful wife? Would she have become divorced and liberated on her own?
Elizabeth Pack's character is multi-faceted and interesting. We see many of her faults. In fact, it took me half the book to really warm up to her. But once we are able to see past the shallow persona she presents to the world, she becomes a remarkably complicated woman (as we all are).
One of the things that really got to me was how Elizabeth's acceptance of a hum-drum domestic life was so readily cast aside for her new role as a spy. I spent much time away from the pages wondering about what her life would have been like if she hadn't been offered the opportunity to become a spy. Would she have carried on as a dutiful wife? Would she have become divorced and liberated on her own?
Elizabeth Pack's character is multi-faceted and interesting. We see many of her faults. In fact, it took me half the book to really warm up to her. But once we are able to see past the shallow persona she presents to the world, she becomes a remarkably complicated woman (as we all are).
January 18, 2014
I got this book because it was based on a real person who was a spy having something to do with the breaking of the Enigma code. Four pages in my suspicions were rising. Overblown, dime-novel writing. I developed the Fear Of Bodice Ripping Syndrome. And sure enough, the great seduction was laid out before my eyes in all it's glory. She was "breached". That's the word the author used for penetration. The rest was worse, but I will spare you.
August 20, 2009
I LOVED this book!! It totally caught me by surprise as I have never heard of Elizabeth Pack before. But after reading this, it's amazing to even think most of this is based on an actualy woman in World War II. As a lover of James Bond, this book was a wonderful find for me and a very interesting read!
November 27, 2010
I usually don't like this genre but it inspired me and forced me to continue to read. The heroine of the book is incredible to follow and you get so involved in what is happening or is going to happen to her that you are compelled to read further.
March 25, 2011
This was an entertaining read; however, not memorable for me. I read it in the fall of '09 and now in December of 2011 I really don't remember very much of it. I think it is because I didn't make an emotional connection with the character.
June 1, 2011
A very well written story of a young woman who inadvertantly becomes one of the most important spies during the 1939-1941 anti-Hitler campaign.
One of the better novels read this year! I really enjoyed it.
One of the better novels read this year! I really enjoyed it.
April 27, 2015
I was interested to know there was a real-life female spy who aided the allies during ww2 but I did not appreciate the graphic sex scenes. It seems like the author used her life as a motif for yet another piece if erotic fiction.
April 30, 2017
A very interesting story of a woman spy during World War II. It is based on an actual woman and I found it fascinating. The author took quite a few liberties with her life (which I found out after I did some research) but it is still a great read.
April 26, 2010
It is his best fiction book
September 19, 2011
Good - An American woman spies against Poland in the beginning of World War II.
November 6, 2012
I really enjoyed reading about Elizabeth Pack. I couldn't stop reading. She led a very exciting life, and had so many loves.
April 1, 2013
What an interesting read! I love that this was based on true events! The writing was decent and it was a fast read.
August 19, 2015
The book was decent. Kept me interested for the most part, and I liked reading about the extravagant lifestyles of the diplomats. But it wasn't a seat-of-your-pants read, by any means.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews