Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy by Janet Wallach

Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy Reviews

• 
  Candace

  3.5 stars, rounded up
  
  If Marguerite Harrison's adventures were not so well documented, they would be impossible to believe. Janet Wallach's "Flirting with Danger"is highly entertaining and swift-moving: tons of fun to read and imagine.
  
  Marguerite was a Baltimore widow, from a wealthy family but in need of work to keep her busy and support her child. She started writing for the Baltimore Sun around the start of the first world war but grew bored with the stuff women got to write about at the time. With a well-devised plan and perfect German, she secretly applied to Military Intelligence to go to Germany toward the end of the war, but the Armistice put an end to that idea. She neatly pivoted to offer her services to find out what Germans were thinking and to report on the influence of Communism as people looked to Russia for a possible next step. She was blisteringly successful, able to dine with the wealthy and go bumming in poor districts, her natural warmth and charm encouraging people of all classes to open up to her. She returned to Baltimore something of a national heroine, but was again relegated to the society column. Marguerite offered her service to MI in 1920, offering to go to Russia in the chaotic period following the Russian Revolution. They accept, but she has to get into Russia herself.
  
  Her insight and ability to connect with people make Mrs. Harrison the perfect correspondent/spy, and her truly awesome language skills enable her to use that gift to the max.
  
  "Flirting with Danger" is a misnomer. Marguerite Harrison jumped into danger with both feet and was aware of what she was doing every second. A widow in her forties who had never known discomfort, who put her son in a Swiss boarding school for six months and didn't pick him up for several years, her writing about post-WWI Germany is on point in warning of what was to come. Her Russian reporting was especially important because so few foreigners made it into, or out of, the country. It would have been useful to have some idea about what spurred her to launch herself into these adventures. Her reporting was impeccable and insightful but often not given the weight it deserved because it was written by a woman.
  
  This is an engrossing adventure story about a remarkable woman. The story would have more depth if Janet Wallach had explored what made Marguerite tick, what gave her the guts and the smarts to do these things and survive. Even without that, this is a cracking good read.
  
  Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this remarkable biography.
• 
  Doreen Prentiss Gabriellini

  Flirting with Danger by Janet Wallach is a non-fiction book. I will say straight out that I thought it was a terrible read. I was interested in the book initially because the Marguerite Harrison was a socialite turned spy after WWI. There were so many instances where Marguerite would travel from one place to another without any explanation of how she got there. There were numerous times where she befriended a person to get information from them. Every time she succeeds with no idea how she achieved this end. From what I can tell Marguerite Harrison had zero training in espionage. I am not sure of her God given talents but she surely was not invisible. I don’t know the volume of information available on Marguerite Harrison so I can’t even say that it was well researched. I surmise that there wasn’t enough information to build a good biography. I felt there was not enough information to connect the reader to the subject. All it left me with was disappointment and lots of questions.
  
  I would like to thank Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Brendan (History Nerds United)

  I often find when I dislike a non-fiction book about an interesting person, the reason is because there is not enough facts to build out a compelling narrative. In essence, these books should become novels to allow the author the latitude to avoid the problem of "telling instead of showing." I believe Janet Wallach's "Flirting with Danger" is an example of this conundrum.
  
  The book follows the espionage activities of Marguerite Harrison after World War I. Harrison certainly found herself in many interesting situations but so many of these situations (to quote Seinfeld) are "yadda yaddaed" away. Numerous times, we are told Harrison befriended someone and got information out of them. Her methods are never explained and the reader is left asking who is Harrison and what drives her. Additionally, Wallach shows no negative side of Harrison and barely criticizes her decisions. To avoid a mild spoiler, I will say that her natural talents of spycraft were probably fine, but she clearly had inadequate training in avoiding attention and not being discovered. Ultimately, there is not enough in the narrative to connect with Harrison and the reader is left with a dizzying amount of names and a lot of questions about perspective.
  
  (This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Doubleday Books.)
• 
  Clay Olmstead

  Marguerite Harrison was an heiress and socialite who became an American spy in 1919. Over the next 7 years or so, she worked in Germany, Russia and the Middle East, gathering information for U.S. Military Intelligence. She personally experienced the beginnings of Naziism, Communism, and Arab independence. Much of what she did is lost to history, since she obviously didn't keep a diary, but the part that's known is a fascinating window into the people, politics and culture of those turbulent years.
  
  I learned a lot, I just wish this book were better written: at times it's repetitive, other times important events are skipped over, and the timeline is jumbled for no apparant reason. When the author gets going though, the book roars along like the real life adventure story that it is, which makes the whole thing worth reading.
• 
  Amy

  Adventurous doesn't mean progressive. The book seems to adopt Harrison's viewpoints without examining how those viewpoints were the product of her class, race, and nationality. Even for beach-read-level history, this is too credulous for my taste. By page 65, I found myself hate-reading it, so, DNF.
  
  Little questions started to nag me right away. Harrison's family made its fortune in "the shipping industry" of 19th century Baltimore. Sounds like they were likely profiting at some point from the sale of human beings. If not, why not say so? I found myself nagged by more questions as I read that Harrison admired Woodrow Wilson, and that Harrison spent a week doing men's jobs at a shipbuilding site, receiving praise that totally ignored the centuries of Black women doing equally demanding physical labor. I understand that Harrison's work, then and later, wasn't about race in the US, but I began to form a picture of a woman who was invested in a belief system that she was content to leave unexamined. What kind of reporting could she do?
  
  When Harrison spends time in Berlin in 1919 on, this perspective became unreadable. I assume that the homophobia in the descriptions of Berlin's cultural life was Harrison's, not the author's, but an editor should have suggested that the book make that distance explicit. Military intelligence was obviously using Harrison for her socialite connections to Germany's reactionary elite--okay, that's in the title, and I shouldn't complain that Harrison lacked expertise as a journalist and basic competence as a spy. But I was increasingly uncomfortable, especially as her travels took her to Poland and Lithuania.
  
  I wish the book had asked questions about where Harrison fits in a broader story of espionage and nationalism from WWI through the Cold War (and maybe still). A small group of men, generally sharing the same worldview and class anxieties, recruited women mostly from the same class and manipulated them into endangering themselves in order to confirm the biases that decisionmakers already had. Even back then, wasn't anyone wondering whether any of these people knew what they were doing?
  
  I really wanted to read about Harrison's adventures in the Middle East, especially because an introductory chapter led me to believe she at least wouldn't share the Islamophobia of today's conservatives. But I couldn't stand any more of her crashing around the world, name dropping and overestimating her own abilities. She was becoming a caricature. A different book might have helped her earn my respect or at least compassion. As it is, I kept thinking of Ivanka Trump presenting herself as a peer of Angela Merkel--nope.
• 
  Suzy S

  An engaging book (even for fiction readers!) about an incredible life. Marguerite Harrison was raised as a Baltimore socialite and went on to write for the Baltimore Sun and spy for the US in Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan, China and Mongolia and then “for fun” did the tribal migration across Persia. All between 1918-1925! Incredible.
  
  Wallach’s well-researched book brings Mrs. Harrison to life and aptly paints the turmoil in the post WW1 world.
• 
  Fred Jenkins

  Harrison is certainly a fascinating character, although the book is uneven. Wallach is right to focus on her spying and travels, but does leave gaps you could drive a truck through. For example, what happened to her father's fortune that she was so often short of the ready? There is also a lot of filler, as other GR readers have noted. Do we really care about the minutiae of her cosmetics and furnishings? (An exception being her time in the Lubyanka, when all the details are of interest). Forty pages of trivia could easily have been jettisoned.
  
  It was interesting to learn about pre-WWII American espionage; most of what I knew about previously was Wild Bill Donovan and the OSS. Several of my old college profs were spies or codebreakers; see Allen's Classical Spies.
  
  Overall, it is an adequately researched and mostly entertaining book.
• 
  Jordyn

  Listen. I had issues with enough of this book that I had a coherent thought, which was not pleasant for me so it won't be pleasant for my legions of fans on here either.
  
  First of all, far too much propaganda. I get it, WW2 bad. Pretty much universally agreed upon by sane people. Not agreed upon? Nationalism and socialism presenting the same imminent threats modern day. That is just simply not true, and also not getting you favors with the feds. Moving on.
  
  This is a very specific type of girlboss energy that I cannot stand. I for one, love stories of women who did things better than men AND I love a historical story moment. How could this have flopped?? For reasons I will never understand, authors of books about "first" women (first to space, first spy, etc etc) use this extremely condescending and palatable feminism to describe their lives and stories.
  
  Typically done in one of three ways, and this had them all: the "women can be just as violent and tasteless as men", the "she was a girl and used her feminine wiles to be good at something", or the "and in the end, she got married and lived as a homemaker". Don't do that. Women are objectively better than men at lots of things (sorry boys), just talk about that.
  
  Anyway, she got a star for writing it in the first place. And one more for a single particularly funny line.
• 
  Elaine Ruth Boe

  An incredibly absorbing, well-paced thriller about one woman who clearly needed therapy for her restlessness and inclination for putting herself in danger and avoiding emotional attachments after losing her husband. This reads like fiction because so much of what Harrison did sounds impossible to survive (Russian prisons, desert treks). While I couldn't help but think much of her wanderlust was a shield against intimacy, that made for a fascinating book! And to Wallach's credit, she notes Harrison's absence in her son's life but doesn't explicitly characterize her as a "bad mother." I'd love to see this turned into a movie. It was also enlightening to hear about the political climate post-WWI and how Harrison in many ways anticipated the conflicts, resentments, and prejudices that contributed to WWII. Also, so much of what she accomplished was into her 40s and beyond; love an alluring female protagonist past her 20s!
• 
  Jenna

  I had read this writer's previous book "Desert Queen" which I liked. This one wasn't on my radar but I saw the author at the 2023 National Bookfest and she was very interesting. Of course, she was promoting this, her newest book.
  It was an interesting story on a female spy who has probably been lost in the pages of history.
  And what makes it a bit more important is that unlike some others, she does get caught & spent many years in prisons for spying (specifically in Russia) which you don't really read about very often.
  I'd recommend this if you're interesting in history, non-fiction in general, spies or women's history.
  
• 
  Nicole

  I really enjoyed this. What a fascinating and exceptional woman. The places she traveled and the things she did, at a time when such things were Not! Done! Just amazing. I’m so glad her story has been unearthed, pieced together, and immortalized.
• 
  Gail

  Flirting with Danger is a fascinating read about the life of Marguerite Harrison who came from a privileged American family and was basically groomed to get married and become a socialite.
  Marguerite’s mother wanted her daughter to marry well and each time she got close, Marguerite thwarted the romances and eventually defied her parents and picked her own husband. She goes on to have a son and is unfortunately widowed at a young age, and that is when the book takes off and the reader is whisked into her life as a spy and a great adventurer.
  
  Janet Wallach does a fine job of giving us intimate insight into Marguerite’s life, as she starts her career in Germany as WWI comes to an end. Her ease with languages becomes a great asset to her as she is able to easily move in many powerful circles around the globe and among common people as she is a keen observer and interested in the lives of ordinary people. She is no snob, and in many ways her roll-with-it attitude saves her from many hardships.
  
  This book is fascinating as it gives the reader so much personal information and makes you feel you are a witness alongside Marguerite. Her lust for living was great and her adventures were so unique; I am sure they never happened again. Wallach celebrates her keen observations and really gives us the good, the bad, and the ugly of her life and choices.
  
  I really enjoyed this book and could have read more. What a great character. Women did pave the way for some many amazing things, although their accomplishments were diminished. I thank Janet Wallach for bringing Marguerite’s life to light, as I would never have found her unless I read this book.
  
  Please read this book if you want to learn about the world after WWI, the aftermath and life as it was then. Fun read, truly enjoyable and insightful.
• 
  Nancy

  The Adventurous Life of a Socialite Spy
  
  In the Gilded Age society was more structured than it is today. Young ladies in upper-class families were expected to marry well, have children, and pursue social obligations. Marguerite Harrison was not interested in conforming. She rejected the suitor her mother had chosen and married a man she loved. When he died, she was left with large debts and a young child. The solution was to go to work.
  
  She started as a society reporter, but craving more action she applied to Military Intelligence to go to Europe as a spy. Her social skills and background opened doors to people in high places and her perceptive reports were very valuable. Eventually, her work as a spy took her Russia, a stint in prison, and travels to the Mideast and beyond.
  
  I found her story fascinating. She didn’t conform to the strictures places on women between the two world wars and had adventures and escapes that would have daunted many men. The book is well researched, but it reads like an action adventure. Because it’s non-fiction we don’t get into her head trying to understand motivation, but the story is riveting none the less. It’s interesting to see how she was able to use the skills learned in an upper-class family to become successful as a secret agent.
  
  Thanks to the published and Net Galley for this review copy.
  
  
• 
  Paterson Dave

  for some reason, i requested a book about marguerite harrison,
  a society deb turned international spy
  
  it is called 'flirting with danger', by janet wallach
  
  the story is supposedly true.
  she was imprisoned in russia twice for being an american spy,
  knew several languages and met and impressed gertrude bell,
  as well as winston churchill and several other international who's who
  candidates. i am 80% through with the book and can't put it down
  until my eyes get blurry.
  a hundred years ago, she and merian cooper, maker of king kong,
  and shorty schoedsack searched 'persia' for the bakhtiar tribe of wild people,
  and they made a documentary with her, called,
  'grass: a nation's battle for life', which is actually on Kanopy,
  free with library card registration in many cities.
  
  i've been trying to stop recommending books and movies
  because almost nobody ever takes up my choices, but
  this one is really good book and i will be watching the movie soon, too
• 
  Stacey

  I had read "Desert Queen" by this author and liked her writing style, so I suggested it to my book club. We read it and all had positive reviews.
  
  I had never heard of Marguerite Harrison before, and I live in the DC/Baltimore area which is full of history (and government agencies). I was intrigued by a woman who could have chosen a life of comfort, but instead used her husband's death to forge a completely new path that fed her need for adventure and yet served her country as well.
  
  While some of her decisions seem incredible and a bit foolhardy (ie: putting herself in position to end up in a Russian prison a 2nd time!), she provided intelligence that no one else could have. People told her things, never imagining that this socialite would pass on the information to her government.
  
  This book left me wondering how many other brave women of the past there are that we have not yet heard about.
• 
  Mark

  One of my favorite recent reads in the area of WWII history was Sonia Purnell's "A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II," the fascinating story of Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who goes on to lead a huge part of the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation, working both for Britain's SOE and later America's OSS which morphed into the CIA of today...Two decades earlier, another Baltimore socialite, Marguerite Harrison acting as a journalist spied for the US and its allies in Germany, the new Soviet Union, Japan and China between the wars...Not as edge of your seat as the Virginia Hill saga, but there must be something about Baltimore socialites and spying!
• 
  Cecile

  I wanted to read this book because Marguerite Harrison was from my hometown and I erroneously thought she went to my school. I find it hard to relate to her or to place her. Few vestiges of her Gilded Age world remain in Baltimore.
  
  The book focuses on her spy and filmmaking career, which lasted barely ten years. I wish there was more about her privileged childhood and her life in Los Angeles after spying. The most vivid episode to me is when she tried to look glamorous for the camera while following a nomadic “uncivilized” group. Otherwise, the portrayal of her risky life feels mostly dry and distant.
• 
  Jan

  Born an American socialite, widowed at 37, became the first female foreign intelligence agent for the United States government in 1918. As a wealthy socialite/journalist/linguist fluent in several European languages she had access to many political arenas and became a spy and later a double agent. She even became a writer/director/producer of a silent film and wrote her autobiography. Fantastic recounting of an amazing woman who defied the norms of her time.
  I requested and received an EARC from Doubleday Books via NetGalley. Thank you
• 
  Sharon

  Marguerite was a member of high society and knew many important people. She was fluent in a number of languages and able to manage in several others. She was recruited at the end of WWI to go to Germany as a special correspondent for the Baltimore Sun and report to Washington all that she could find out about the feelings of the Germans about making peace. She was sent to a variety of countries as a socialite but to gather information in that role. She was imprisoned in the Lubyanka Prison while gathering information in Russia.
• 
  Stuart Miller

  An interesting account of the adventures of one of the first female spies to work for U.S. military intelligence from the end of WW I to the early 1930s. Harrison certainly had some incredible experiences, e.g., her account of imprisonment in the notorious Lubyanka prison in Moscow is hair-raising. It would have been useful for Wallach to examine the continued validity (or otherwise) of the books Harrison published on foreign affairs although the author does note several cases of Harrison's accurate foresight.
• 
  Nancy

  Marguerite Harrison had a life that can only be described as unbelievable. This woman had an amazingly adventurous spirit, was fearless, and never took no for an answer. She also had a very privileged life as a daughter of a shipping magnate. She crossed paths with so many high echelon people. Truly and amazing life. Three stars as there were gaps like what happened to her father's forture, how was she able to continue traveling when deathly ill, and a bit hard to stay with all of her wanderings.
• 
  Kemp

  I’m of a mixed opinion on this book – both good and bad.
  
  I like reading about people who broke free of stereotypes and excelled where one isn’t expected to. Marguerite Harrison did things women of that era weren’t supposed, or allowed, to do. And that is an interesting read.
  
  But it was way too detailed in the minutiae of wardrobe she wore, food she ate, and social activities without exactly getting to the how or why she excelled at collecting intelligence. No speculation into her motives. These sections read like a book report garnered from copious notes and diaries.