Code Name Puritan, by Greg Barnhisel, is both a thoroughly researched historical account and a very engaging read.

I will admit this is right up my alley, well, one of my alleys. My father was part of the intelligence community from his days during WWII through his time at Fort Meade as a civilian. While I was military for an enlistment, one of my undergraduate degrees was English. So I have an interest in both worlds in which Pearson traveled.

I think what makes this such an enjoyable book is that we move between biography, history, and analysis of what made this specific person, in this specific time, so unique and important. We come to understand the person and the things that motivated him. We learn about why the intelligence community did some of the things they did. And we also gain some insight into why things did or didn't work to plan all around. And we never feel we leave any of these threads behind as we progress.

Whether your interest is primarily this period of history, or you are mostly interested in reading about the people who stepped up during moments of need, you will find a lot here to make you happy. You may also, like I did, go and look up some things that you want to know more about. I always appreciate a book that tells me what it intended and does so while also making me even more interested in peripheral topics.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

Wow, this is nearly the perfect book. I have nothing negative to say. Greg Barnhisel is a great writer. Academics are the worst and their ivory tower maneuverings deserve to be pasted with napalm. Somehow, Greg manages to cover these loathesome machinations in a way that preserves your sanity and gets the point across. Incredible scholarship here, doubtless better than whatever psuedo-intelligible vomit the subject ever managed to produce. Concludes a bit suddenly, I think.