Perrin, Nigel The Spy who betrayed

The Treacherous Life of Mathilde Carré

The clever, charismatic and daring Mathilde Carré fit the image of a fearless spy. Under the code name The Cat, she co-founded the largest intelligence network in occupied France and inspired her recruits to wage a secret war against the Germans. Carré provided valuable information to the Allies, and her commitment to their cause seemed unquestionable. But behind the Cat's reputation lay a flawed and unpredictable personality, driven by a deadly mix of personal ambition, vanity and jealousy. When she finally fell into enemy hands, Carré chose to save herself rather than her comrades, betraying dozens of her own agents. As the mistress of her captor, she enjoyed a life of luxury in Paris and earned the respect of her new German masters. However, when she fled to London due to a secret affair with a British agent, Carré's true intentions raised serious questions. How far could she be trusted, and to whom did her loyalty truly lie? At her trial, the extraordinary deeds of The Cat were finally revealed to the public, turning a resistance heroine into a figure of public hatred. Sentenced to death, she remained relentlessly unrepentant to the end, presenting herself as a victim of circumstance rather than a willing traitor. Mathilde Carré was a fascinatingly complex and enigmatic personality who worked for the French, British, Polish and German secret services and betrayed them all. The book is the result of more than ten years of research and raises questions about the boundaries between resistance and collaboration, as well as the power of myths and self-deception.