WISE GALS The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage

Women regularly get short shrift in history books. This work seeks to fill in one gap, telling the stories of four remarkable women who helped shape the modern CIA. They all were intelligent and hardworking and not afraid to push for the credit and pay they deserved. Erin Bennett offers a solid narration. Her generally conversational tone carries listeners along effectively. But she also captures the excitement of some of the women's exploits and the frustration of not being treated as equals by their male counterparts. There are few extended quotes, so Bennett wisely doesn't give each woman a distinct voice. The women were ridiculed as "the wise gals" by their colleagues, but the women embraced the label and had the last laugh when their value became clear. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2022]