What do you think?
Rate this book
A Spy in the Family: A True Story of Espionage and Betrayal
A can’t-believe-it’s-true wartime page-turner that tells the incredible story of a mother, the son she was forced to give up for adoption, and the spy who, decades later, infiltrated her life with a devastating lie.
Johanna van Haarlem never wanted to abandon her son, Erwin. But the Nazis had occupied Europe and the teenager felt she had little choice. Her father had kicked her out, telling her she could return, without the child—or not at all. Johanna realized that together, she and her newborn wouldn’t survive; separated, at least Erwin had a fighting chance. So she surrendered the baby to an orphanage and tearfully went back home, vowing to return for Erwin one day.
Johanna lives to see the Nazis defeated, and to deeply regret abandoning her child. When, decades later, at the height of the Cold War, she receives a letter from Erwin, it feels like a miraculous second chance. But at their joyful reunion in London, Johanna makes a disturbing Erwin’s eyes are the wrong colour. In a decision that will come to haunt her, she quickly buries the seed of her doubt and welcomes the young man into her life.
It will take more than a decade for the imposter’s deceit to come to light, even longer to untangle the lies shielding his real identity—and his motives. Unfolding in a series of astonishing twists and turns, A Spy in the Family reveals the true story of a notorious Soviet Bloc agent who took advantage of a mother’s heartbreak to hide in plain sight.
Johanna van Haarlem never wanted to abandon her son, Erwin. But the Nazis had occupied Europe and the teenager felt she had little choice. Her father had kicked her out, telling her she could return, without the child—or not at all. Johanna realized that together, she and her newborn wouldn’t survive; separated, at least Erwin had a fighting chance. So she surrendered the baby to an orphanage and tearfully went back home, vowing to return for Erwin one day.
Johanna lives to see the Nazis defeated, and to deeply regret abandoning her child. When, decades later, at the height of the Cold War, she receives a letter from Erwin, it feels like a miraculous second chance. But at their joyful reunion in London, Johanna makes a disturbing Erwin’s eyes are the wrong colour. In a decision that will come to haunt her, she quickly buries the seed of her doubt and welcomes the young man into her life.
It will take more than a decade for the imposter’s deceit to come to light, even longer to untangle the lies shielding his real identity—and his motives. Unfolding in a series of astonishing twists and turns, A Spy in the Family reveals the true story of a notorious Soviet Bloc agent who took advantage of a mother’s heartbreak to hide in plain sight.
304 pages, Paperback
First published April 29, 2025
About the author
Paul Henderson
158 books1 followerLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 31, 2026
Hallowing true story of Dutch woman during WW2, gets pregnant by German soldier, but her father(a German sympathizer) rejects her and she has to put her baby in an orphanage. She spends years trying find her son. When she finally does he turns out to be a Chzech Cold War spy-or is he? Tale of a mother's undying love for her son.
February 28, 2026
Elements of this story are astounding, but the book is ultimately a little bit thin. I’d be curious to know how it would have come off in the hands of a non-fiction master like Ben Macintyre. The story was certainly captivating, but I felt like the authors were a little too taken with the mother who gave her son up for adoption - brushing over some huge questions (like the Nazi father) and too eager in the end to make the spy a total villain. An interesting tale nonetheless.
January 5, 2026
This story is absolutely heartbreaking, and made even worse by the fact that it's a true story and the perpetrator felt absolutely no remorse for his known deceit.
The first part of the story details the struggles of a young Johanna van Haarlem, who was raped and impregnated by a German soldier stationed in Holland in 1944. Despite the fact that her father, himself a Jew entertained the Nazis at his house during their occupation, upon hearing that she's pregnant by one of the soldiers, he disowns her and force her out of their house. The only way they agree to have her back in their house is if she goes to Czechoslovakia to put the child up for adoption. She goes there and agrees to give the baby, whom she names Erwin van Haarlem to the Red Cross, but with the promise that she can come back some day to reclaim him when she has the money to cover for the cost of his care during his stay. Her father however also forces her to sign documents stating that she no longer wants any claim to the child, and as a final blow, he burns up adoption papers the family gets sent so she can't track down the whereabouts of little Erwin in the future.
Meanwhile, we have super-spy Václav Jelinek who works for both the StB, the Czech counterintelligence agency and the USSR's KGB where he takes on the assumed name of Erwin Van Haarlem because it was common at the time for counterintelligence agencies to appropriate the names of missing or presumed dead orphans The new Erwin is trained in spy craft and sent to London gain intelligence on the the Royal Family. For awhile things go smoothly for this new Erwin as he uses his charm and jobs working as a bartender in the Hilton and later as a successful art dealer, Jelinek used his charm to infiltrate the Jewish organization The 35s, and send information of their activities to the StB along with other knowledge. Then in 1977, he's thrown for a loop when the The Red Cross contact him saying that his mother would like to get in touch.
On the orders of the StB he's made to maintain the charade to Johanna that he is her long-lost son, and conveniently sidesteps any questions she asks about his "adoptive parents" and where he grew up. This charade continues for 13 years - even going so far as to meeting and being accepted by her other son Hans and other extended relatives. Jelinek grows tired of the Johanna and gets callous towards her, allowing MI5 to grow suspicious of him and soon realize he's an imposter. A DNA test is done and Johanna must face the truth and feels as though she's lost her son all over again. She does agree to testify against Jelinek in court where he's sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The final part of the book is dedicated to Johanna requesting the aid of the authors of the book to at last track down the REAL Erwin. While Johanna does eventually get to experience some happiness during the eventual reunion, it still is mindboggling to me that she would have to go through a nightmare like this in the first place. I also can't imagine anyone willingly duping a mother for 13 years with affection, memories and gifts and not feeling any remorse or guilt. I know, he's a sociopath so I shouldn't expect any less, but it's still heartbreaking to think about.
The first part of the story details the struggles of a young Johanna van Haarlem, who was raped and impregnated by a German soldier stationed in Holland in 1944. Despite the fact that her father, himself a Jew entertained the Nazis at his house during their occupation, upon hearing that she's pregnant by one of the soldiers, he disowns her and force her out of their house. The only way they agree to have her back in their house is if she goes to Czechoslovakia to put the child up for adoption. She goes there and agrees to give the baby, whom she names Erwin van Haarlem to the Red Cross, but with the promise that she can come back some day to reclaim him when she has the money to cover for the cost of his care during his stay. Her father however also forces her to sign documents stating that she no longer wants any claim to the child, and as a final blow, he burns up adoption papers the family gets sent so she can't track down the whereabouts of little Erwin in the future.
Meanwhile, we have super-spy Václav Jelinek who works for both the StB, the Czech counterintelligence agency and the USSR's KGB where he takes on the assumed name of Erwin Van Haarlem because it was common at the time for counterintelligence agencies to appropriate the names of missing or presumed dead orphans The new Erwin is trained in spy craft and sent to London gain intelligence on the the Royal Family. For awhile things go smoothly for this new Erwin as he uses his charm and jobs working as a bartender in the Hilton and later as a successful art dealer, Jelinek used his charm to infiltrate the Jewish organization The 35s, and send information of their activities to the StB along with other knowledge. Then in 1977, he's thrown for a loop when the The Red Cross contact him saying that his mother would like to get in touch.
On the orders of the StB he's made to maintain the charade to Johanna that he is her long-lost son, and conveniently sidesteps any questions she asks about his "adoptive parents" and where he grew up. This charade continues for 13 years - even going so far as to meeting and being accepted by her other son Hans and other extended relatives. Jelinek grows tired of the Johanna and gets callous towards her, allowing MI5 to grow suspicious of him and soon realize he's an imposter. A DNA test is done and Johanna must face the truth and feels as though she's lost her son all over again. She does agree to testify against Jelinek in court where he's sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The final part of the book is dedicated to Johanna requesting the aid of the authors of the book to at last track down the REAL Erwin. While Johanna does eventually get to experience some happiness during the eventual reunion, it still is mindboggling to me that she would have to go through a nightmare like this in the first place. I also can't imagine anyone willingly duping a mother for 13 years with affection, memories and gifts and not feeling any remorse or guilt. I know, he's a sociopath so I shouldn't expect any less, but it's still heartbreaking to think about.
December 19, 2025
The old adage that truth is stranger than fiction sums up this story perfectly. Reading at times like a John Le Carré spy thriller, the story focuses on the life of Václav Jelinek as a Czech spy in London; however, Jelinek works under the assumed identity of Erwin van Haarlem, who was left at an orphanage by his Dutch mother during WWII. Since the StB, the Czech counterintelligence agency, feels that the real van Haarlem will be difficult to find, the group appropriates the name and trains Jelinek in spy craft and sends him to London as Erwin van Haarlem. The first part of the story shows the poignant tribulations of Erwin’s mother, Johanna van Haarlem, who was raped and impregnated by a German soldier stationed in Holland in 1944. To avoid the ignominy of their daughter’s having a child out of wedlock and especially having a child fathered by a German, Johanna’s parents disown her and force her out of the house. Desperate to survive and to keep her child, Johanna goes to Czechoslovakia, but her penury compels her to give Erwin to the Red Cross for their care with the understanding that she can come back for him when she has enough money to pay for the child’s upkeep. The second part of the story shows Jelinek’s training to become a spy, his adoption of Erwin’s identity, and his work around London with groups like The 35s, a group of British Jews who campaigned for the release of the refuseniks in the USSR and the freedom for them to emigrate to Israel. Through his suave character and his occupation as a bartender in the Hilton and later as a successful art dealer, Jelinek used his charm to infiltrate The 35s, and send information of their activities to the StB who eventually send it to the KGB in Russia. Even when Johanna’s persistence to find her son leads her to find the imposter Erwin, Jelinek, in an effort to avoid compromising his espionage in London, continues the charade by encouraging Johanna’s belief that he is her long-lost son, Erwin. Jelinek’s callousness towards Johanna’s feelings becomes evident over a ten-year period during which he maintains a relationship with his “mother” and his half-brother, sending them gifts and going on trips with them. His insensitivity works against him when MI5 arrests him and brings him to trial where DNA evidence proves he is not Johanna’s son, and she testifies against him. The final section of the book focuses on Johanna’s continued search for Erwin in Czechoslovakia. Journalists Paul Henderson and David Gardner who collaborated on the research tell an engaging and, at times, emotionally wrenching story that will captivate fans who love tales of espionage.
August 15, 2025
As the living memory of WWII dies out, writers are mining it for interesting stories to tell and memorialise. This is one of those stories. Unfortunately what could be an interesting story is marred by uneven writing and slightly mis-provided historical context.
In recounting what is essentially the story of a woman mistreated by her family and then misled by a spy, the surrounding historical context is uneven at best. Some information is missing or wrong (the Gereformeerde Kerk was conservative not fundamentalist) and others are extra (why do we need to know Italy was invaded in 1943 when it was 1944 and the father died in Caen or the Blitz happened in 1941 when describing the danger of train travel in 1994-45 Germany). The description of the cold war was haphazard at best.
Normally, one would be sympathetic to the mother in the story but although the writer occassionally tells us to be empathetic, he (or they) rarely show us empathy. The story of the spy at times supersedes the mother and often reads farcical and even sympathetically but in the end we are told he's the bad guy. The writing in short is uneven and does a disservice to what is an interesting life story.
In recounting what is essentially the story of a woman mistreated by her family and then misled by a spy, the surrounding historical context is uneven at best. Some information is missing or wrong (the Gereformeerde Kerk was conservative not fundamentalist) and others are extra (why do we need to know Italy was invaded in 1943 when it was 1944 and the father died in Caen or the Blitz happened in 1941 when describing the danger of train travel in 1994-45 Germany). The description of the cold war was haphazard at best.
Normally, one would be sympathetic to the mother in the story but although the writer occassionally tells us to be empathetic, he (or they) rarely show us empathy. The story of the spy at times supersedes the mother and often reads farcical and even sympathetically but in the end we are told he's the bad guy. The writing in short is uneven and does a disservice to what is an interesting life story.
January 4, 2026
This is a fascinating true story about the a young Dutch mother forced to give up her child in a Czech orphanage during WW2 and her search to find him again. When she found him he turned out to be an imposter, a Czech spy, living in London. After the spies trial she finally tracks down her real son. This is an inspiring story of perseverance and resilience despite many obstacles. Highly recommend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2025
Such a great summer read! IT was so unique, not so much like a novel, or a biography, bur more like an op-ed or even magazine. I loved the pictures and documents of the people in the story; you really are enmeshed in a mystery spanning decades.
Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys mysteries, thrillers, history, and/or stories of mothers persevering.
Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys mysteries, thrillers, history, and/or stories of mothers persevering.
October 26, 2025
Interesting book, a little light on what secrets the spy discovered, aside from infiltrating Jewish groups.
At the end - in the Acknowledgements, there are 3 books listed from Czechoslovakia. Two about the spy, and one the memoir of the 'Mother'. While it's likely the reporters who authored this book had to be some investigating, I really wonder how much, given the already printed material.
At the end - in the Acknowledgements, there are 3 books listed from Czechoslovakia. Two about the spy, and one the memoir of the 'Mother'. While it's likely the reporters who authored this book had to be some investigating, I really wonder how much, given the already printed material.
December 5, 2025
Intriguing true story of a Dutch woman who leaves her infant son in a Czech orphanage during the later stages of WW2. What follows over the decades makes a good read: a Czech spy with a stolen identity is stationed in England and eventually deceives the mother into believing he is her actual son. Highly recommended.
January 6, 2026
A Spy in the Family reads like the kind of secret you stumble into and can’t quite put back where you found it. Paul Henderson tells the story of discovering that a close family member had lived a double life as a spy, and he does it with a steady, searching voice that feels less sensational and more quietly stunned. The book moves between the everyday texture of family life and the slow reveal of espionage (code names, betrayals, half-truths) so the shock lands in human terms. Henderson is less interested in spy-movie theatrics than in the emotional whiplash of realizing that the person you thought you knew was always slightly elsewhere.
What makes the book so absorbing is its intimacy. Henderson treats loyalty, love, and trust as fragile things, showing how secrecy ripples outward through generations. There’s a tenderness to the way he writes about memory; what we choose to remember, what we forgive, and how families rebuild narratives once the old ones collapse. The prose is clear and unshowy, letting the strangeness of the truth speak for itself. A Spy in the Family stays with you because it isn’t just about espionage; it’s about identity, inheritance, and the complicated grace of trying to understand someone fully, even when their life was built on concealment.
What makes the book so absorbing is its intimacy. Henderson treats loyalty, love, and trust as fragile things, showing how secrecy ripples outward through generations. There’s a tenderness to the way he writes about memory; what we choose to remember, what we forgive, and how families rebuild narratives once the old ones collapse. The prose is clear and unshowy, letting the strangeness of the truth speak for itself. A Spy in the Family stays with you because it isn’t just about espionage; it’s about identity, inheritance, and the complicated grace of trying to understand someone fully, even when their life was built on concealment.
October 30, 2025
DNF
I lost interest at about halfway through this book, the story was interesting enough but the writing seemed to jump all over the place, there maybe needed to be a short 1-2 page description with aliases to help the reader keep track of who they were reading about
I lost interest at about halfway through this book, the story was interesting enough but the writing seemed to jump all over the place, there maybe needed to be a short 1-2 page description with aliases to help the reader keep track of who they were reading about
July 28, 2025
Wow! This is the best book I’ve read in a very long time! What a great read and a true story. Never give up-always keep your head up and find ways to make it.
October 10, 2025
3.5
I looooove me a good spy/war story esp when it’s real.
I looooove me a good spy/war story esp when it’s real.
October 22, 2025
an excellent story, very glad I had the opportunity to read it.
December 29, 2025
Interesting story but poorly recounted.
January 4, 2026
An enthralling read full of mystery and emotion a page turner. I have a feeling that a film will be made from this.
January 10, 2026
Started feeling stressed half way through that I was reading too fast and it would be over too soon. It was. Loved this book so much.
February 8, 2026
Beautiful story of love, loss and love again.
The audio needed work though - repeating sentences and at one point, the narrator coughs, distinctly and loudly. Whoever edited it should be fired.
The audio needed work though - repeating sentences and at one point, the narrator coughs, distinctly and loudly. Whoever edited it should be fired.
February 28, 2026
Erg interessant verhaal over een verloren zoon. Het is goed en duidelijk geschreven, echter mis ik de warmte en diepte om het een ontroerend verhaal te maken.
April 4, 2026
Interessant en aangrijpend verhaal, wel wat taai geschreven door de vele herhalingen en het regelmatig uitleggen hoe we ons als lezer bij bepaalde zaken moeten voelen.
April 9, 2026
Good read. Very good ending...
May 5, 2026
We will never know the true depth of knowledge the unprotected spies have provided.
March 28, 2025
This is a great read.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews