Article and Interview by Elise Cooper
The Traitor Beside Her by Mary Anna Evans blends mystery, action, friendship, with a hint of romance. Readers get a glimpse of how women helped in the war effort, and she treats readers to fun historical facts, suspense, intrigue, espionage, and secrets.
World War II was not only fought on the battlefront but also on the intelligence front. Arlington Hall, a former women’s college in Virginia, has been taken over by the United States Army where hundreds of men and women work to decode countless pieces of communication coming from the Axis powers. At the facility, they collect scrambled German communications and decode them. After three women have gone missing, it becomes apparent that a traitor is passing on top secret information. To find the culprit, Justine and her friend Georgette are sent there, because they have the skills to find the traitor and can pass as one of the code breakers. Georgette knows the Native American language Choctaw, while Justine is fluent in German and is a math/physics whiz. Their mission is to find how code breakers tick, knowing that if the traitor is not discovered thousands of soldiers’ lives are at stake.
Their male counterparts, Paul, Ed, and Jerry are not just co-workers but also have strong feelings for Justine and Georgette. They help them in their endeavors but also vow to keep the women safe. It appears their feelings are beyond peers but have entered the romance realm.
This story will keep readers on the edge of their seats, especially as the heroines are put into very dangerous situations. The cat and mouse game played has people wondering who the traitor is and how will they be found out.
Elise Cooper: Why did you write this type of story?
Mary Anna Evans: This is the second in the series. The previous book was The Physicists’ Daughter. With this current book I wanted to take the main character, Justine, right out of her comfort zone. She is working undercover for an American intelligence Agency, embedded in a group of code breakers looking for a traitor who is sending secrets. I like writing books that have women in the sciences.
EC: How has your work experience helped to write the story?
MAE: My bachelor is in Engineering and Physics and my master’s is in Chemical Engineering. I have an ingrained sense of cause and effect, which helps with my plotting. I ask what the logic in the scene is, and how can I make sure it makes sense. I wanted to have a woman in the 1940s with my kind of knowledge. She was constantly being underestimated by people who had no clue on what she understood. In the first book the main character, Justine, worked in a factory with the Rosie the Riveter kind of job.
EC: How would you describe Justine?
MAE: She has a quiet exuberance, confident, competent, smart, observant, and is untrusting, with a temper. She speaks German and has a knowledge of code breaking with her math background. At times she can be naïve but is always logical and analytical. Her biggest weakness is she is not people smart unlike her best friend Georgette.
EC: How would you describe Georgette?
MAE: She works well with Justine, and each learn from one another. She is observant, can be excitable, and has perseverance. Her grandmother was a Choctaw Indian and taught Georgette to speak Choctaw. This comes in handy because it was used as a code during WWII.
EC: Real versus fabricated in the story?
MAE: Arlington Hall in Virginia was real. An interesting book is Code Girls. An author interviewed the women at Arlington Hall who were the code breakers. The dormitory was real. I found photos and articles of the dormitory floorplan on the Internet. The setting is very realistic. The restaurant, The Mayfair, that Justine goes on a date is real. I found photos of the dining room, the menu, and the drink menu, and that they had dancing.
The mission of the code breakers was also real. We knew Germans did break some of our codes, but they did not know we knew it, so we used it to give fake information.
Many of these women kept the secret of their job for many years, even from their husbands, after WWII ended.
EC: What about the gadgets used, they seem like something from James Bond?
MAE: Yes, they were all real: the purses with false bottoms for hidden compartments, a tiny camera built into a handheld matchbox, pens and pencils disguised to hide a functioning blade, a gun with a singular .22 bullet disguised as a pen, noise makers, and a chamber with pepper spray. I found them on the Internet and in some spy books. People can buy them on the Internet. I had Justine’s Godmother make those weapons and give them to her and Georgette.
EC: Dr. Ed Van Dorn plays a dual role in the story?
MAE: He is an academic who is a code breaker supervisor. He can be resentful, arrogant, and flirty, attempting to pursue Justine’s affections. He is also charming and cocky. Justine finds herself more attracted to him because he shows her his vulnerability and is willing to confide in her.
EC: What about the relationship between Georgette and Jerry, who also was a spy for the American Intelligence?
MAE: They are a great couple. They suit each other. Jerry is very protective, down to earth, and caring. Georgette admires him because he has overcome adversity, having recovered from polio, although still in a wheelchair. He focuses on the positive. He is devoted to his job, his best friend Paul, and Georgette. They are more constrained by the morals of the time.
EC: What about the relationship between Justine and Paul, who also was a spy for the American Intelligence?
MAE: She needs to decide because Paul is very much elusive and an introvert. I don’t think he ever told her his last name. He is her supervisor and is in a very responsible position. Paul is very aware how her life is in his hands. He has a conflict between using her as a spy and wanting to protect her, which is very hard for him. Justine knows he can be very charismatic but also is someone who likes to keep his distance. His real self can be very awkward, but when he is using a false identity, acting as a man of the world, he can be very charming. He knows he has never met anyone like Justine. Paul is keeping Justine at arm’s length to protect her even though she does not want him to. Also, let’s not count out a code breaker, Ed, who is trying to gain her affections.
EC: You have a nice quote about romance?
MAE: You are referring to this book quote, “Romance is a game and it’s a dance. It moves to its own rhythm, and it takes its own sweet time.” I think it is romantic that way between the two couples. It was a different time. People did not just fall into bed and date seriously. They are spies that could be assigned anywhere at any time or could die at any time because of the war. They are protecting each other and themselves.
EC: Different types of codes?
MAE: Justine realizes the whole world is a code. Language is a code. Flowers are a code. The sexual signals given to someone is a code. Music is a code. The card game bridge is a code. How someone dresses are a code.
EC: Next book?
MAE: It will be stand-alone. It will take place in 1942 and is a Gothic novel. A woman had her parents ruling the town. Her mother disappears, her father has a stroke, and she comes home. She realizes she cannot trust anything her parents have told her. The current title is The Library of Rockfall House, coming out in 2025.
Book 3, the Justine book, will come out after the Gothic novel. Justine and Georgette will work to help in the war effort against the Japanese. Future books that take place in the post war years will have a lot of interesting stuff to work around espionage and science.
EC: THANK YOU!!
