Publication Date: November 6, 2024
As the bombs rained down on Paris, my family fled before the Nazis could take us. I never thought I’d see my beloved home again. But I’ve come back to fight for the people I love. And now, I’m the last agent standing. The freedom of the world rests on my shoulders.
Paris, 1940. As Nazi soldiers march down the Champs Elysees, Noor‘s heart is shattered. Her family is forced to flee their home to the safety of England, and as Noor watches the French coast disappear in the distance, she vows to do everything she can to stop Germany from devouring her beloved country.
Training as a wireless operative in England, Noor’s perfect French makes her the ideal candidate for undercover work in her beloved Paris, and she is soon assigned to an illustrious spy network led by a mysterious man named Prosper.
Day after day, Noor walks the treacherous streets of Paris looking for safe places to broadcast messages to London. But Nazi officers lurk around every corner, and Noor’s heart thunders in her chest as she evades detection, tightly clutching the briefcase containing her radio equipment. She knows it would take just one stop and search for her life to be over.
With each passing day her mission becomes more lethal as, one by one, her fellow agents are captured. Someone is betraying them, but who? And when Noor becomes the last agent in the network, can she keep the links with England alive, to help win the war?
An utterly gripping and emotional World War 2 novel inspired by the incredible true story of Noor Inayat Khan, the first female radio operator sent by SOE into Nazi-occupied France. Fans of Suzanne Goldring, Ellie Midwood and Siobhan Curran will be swept away.
Noor Inayat Khan’s name may not be widely known among World War II historians, but her contributions as an agent for the British government in France shouldn’t be overlooked.
Author Sharon Maas brings Noor’s story to life in The Last Agent in Paris. With an Indian father and an American mother, young Noor seems destined for greatness.
When her family flees France for the safety of England, Noor is determined to play a role in defeating the Germans. As her brother signs up for the RAF, Noor chafes at being restricted to nursing. Her opportunity to do more comes when she joins a spy network and goes to France as a radio operator.
There, she takes on different identities as she walks amongst the Nazi soldiers and passes information to the British. She becomes a crucial part of the espionage effort, especially her ability to avoid capture. Yet spying is always like walking a tightrope. One false step, or even one whisper, is all it takes.
Inspired by a true story, The Last Agent in Paris will have readers alternating between cheering and crying as this fiercely determined woman demonstrates courage in the face of adversity.
Sharon Maas was born to politically active parents in Georgetown, Guyana, in 1951. She was educated in England, Guyana, and, later, Germany. After leaving school, she worked as a reporter with the Guyana Graphic in Georgetown and later wrote feature articles for the Sunday Chronicle as a staff journalist. Sharon has always had a great sense of adventure and curiosity about the world we live in, and Guyana could not hold her for long. In 1971 she set off on a year-long backpacking trip around South America, followed by an overland trek to South India, where she spent two years in an ashram. She lived in Germany for forty-three years and now lives in Ireland. She is the author of The Violin Maker’s Daughter, The Soldier’s Girl, Her Darkest Hour and many other novels.
