The Indomitable Florence Finch: The Untold Story of a War Widow Turned Resistance Fighter and Savior of American POWs

Former U.S. congressman and novelist Mrazek (And the Sparrow Fell) delivers a crisp chronicle of Florence Finch’s contributions to the Philippine resistance movement during WWII. Born to an American serviceman and a Filipina woman, Finch (1915–2016) started dating U.S. naval intelligence officer Charles “Bing” Smith in late 1940 and secured a job as administrative secretary to Maj. Carl Engelhart, deputy head of U.S. Army Intelligence for the Philippines. In December 1941, Japanese armed forces invaded. Smith died in a dive bomb attack; Engelhart became a prisoner of war. Finch, meanwhile, found work with a Japanese-controlled fuel company and joined an underground network smuggling supplies to Allied prisoners. In 1944, she was arrested and sentenced to three years of hard labor. In early February 1945, American soldiers liberated her prison. Mrazek chronicles Englehart’s treatment in various POW camps to highlight the importance of smuggling efforts, and interweaves a broad overview of the war in the Philippines with an action-packed recap of Finch’s exploits, providing drama but little emotional insight. WWII buffs will relish this inside look at life under Japanese occupation; general readers will wish they got to know the heroine of the title better. (July)