by Douglas Waller, 2011, Free Press, New York

This looked like a pretty good book as the subject sounded pretty interesting.  On the plus side, the book did have a lot of information about what went on behind the scenes in World War II.  On the downside, for a biography, I didn’t feel as if I really knew Bill Donovan after reading the book.  The author provides a really good accounting of his actions and deeds, but I felt he somehow came up short in revealing the real person behind all of it.  The narrative also left me cold as it was primarily a chronological accounting of all the things that Bill Donovan did.  While Waller tried to provide a picture of Donovan through his relationships with members of his family, he just doesn’t seem to project the person well.

The bottom line is that the author managed to make what should have been a fascinating story very dull.