Zigzag takes its name from Eddie Chapman's code names; Chapman being one of the most successful double agents in all of World War II. His story is a fascinating one but, unfortunately, loses something in the telling. As a result, some of the "adventure" that so motivated Chapman is lost - and that assumes the reader makes it past Chapman's early (criminal) life and to his spy days.
Chapman was a serial safebreaker and petty criminal in the '30s, and found himself locked inside a Jersey jail when the Germans invaded. Seeking - always - to save his skin, Chapman offered to work for them, with an eye toward being sent back to England. His plan worked, and he was able to offer his services to the British, who used him to great affect in the latter years of the war.
I don't have any particular bones to pick with author Nicholas Booth. Zigzag is at least the fourth book I've read on World War II-era spying. With the exception of Operation Mincemeat (which I loved), I have been disappointed in all of them. I did not finish the one about Richard Sorge and was singularly unimpressed with the works on Vera Atkins and Roald Dahl's espionage career. On the other hand, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy and She Rode with Generals are excellent Civil War-era spy biographies, so perhaps spying in that war makes for better reading.
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