The House of Special Purpose Book Summary and Study Guide

ISBN: 0-451-41108-0

In November 1941 cash strapped freelance photographer Jane Todd is introduced by a friend to William "Wild Bill" Donovan, head of America's newly created spy agency the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), and William Stephenson the Canadian born head of British Intelligence operations in North America. America is still officially neutral, the attack on Pearl Harbor is still a month away, but Donovan and Stephenson are hard at work preparing for the day when the U.S. will be in the war.

Donovan and Stephenson want Jane to help them obtain some documentation that, if made public, could prove damaging to the U.S. and Britain in the coming war. Despite their attempts to play down the risks, Jane knows the assignment will be dangerous but finally agrees to accept the assignment once they agree to her demand that she receive the official accreditation necessary to become a war correspondent once the war starts. Jane is then teamed up with Scotland Yard inspector Morris Black and Ian Fleming is assigned as their control officer. Jane and Morris soon learn that the documentation in question is rumored to be linked to the brutal murder of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his family in 1917 and its contents could prove embarrassing to high officials in the American and British governments and even to the British Royal Family. Britain and the U.S. obviously want to keep this documentation from being made public while others including the Soviets, Nazi Germany and even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor want to obtain it as a tool to obtain their own ends.

The review of this Book prepared by Chuck Nugent