Eye of the Lion

"A Novel Based on the Life of Mata Hari" begins and ends when Margaretha Eerturida Zelle Macleod faces a firing squad without revealing the identity of her over-confederate. Mrs. Wertenbaker is by no means so reticent as she recreates her life through her own last minute memories and the more rueful recall of some of the men she knew. No longer the enigmatic odalisque, Geerschy, of the supple tawny body, the "full lipped misleading mouth", the sooty eyes and the eyelashes like "waterlogged ferns" flaunts her femininity from page to page. Indeed, the prose is as pulpy as a persimmon. Inscrutable she's not-- she's childish, coquettish, a dancer of hypnotic charm, a chronic but convincing liar. While there are only three knowns in her life ("She was born- she danced- she died"). . .