The Red Dancer

by Richard Skinner

When Margaretha Zelle, a young woman living in The Hague, answers a lonely hearts advertisement she becomes drawn into a relationship with an army captain twice her age. After a hasty wedding, they depart for Indonesia, where the marriage collapses amid infidelity and violence. Seeking a new life, Margaretha returns to Europe and travels to Paris, where she adopts the stage name Mata Hari, reinventing herself as an exotic dancer. In her new role she attracts the attention of numerous admirers, many of whom are officers, ready to share their secrets with a woman of notorious allure and intrigue, as Europe lurches towards explosive conflict.

256 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2017

Reviews

[Shriya Sharma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pocket-book read. Mata Hari has been such an interesting character—dancer or prostitute or spy or just a Lady lost in translation! Whatever be her true identity, she is definitely enigmatic. And Skinner skims through her life like a tom peeping through a window. Some may be true; some is definitely cooked up! However, the book leaves you a bit satisfied for a while.

[Nevanthri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected more from this book. In the end it felt very empty and like superficial