Operation Mincemeat tells the story of an elaborate hoax to fool German forces of an impending invasion of Italy, at the tail end of World War 2. 
 It involved floating a body, carrying false documents, off the coast of Spain to be picked up by local Spanish fishermen. The body and documents were then hoped to be passed through to German authorities - fooling them into preparing for an Allied 'invasion' in a completely false landing area. Many might recall the movie and book, The Spy Who Never Was, on which this is based. 
 Using historical facts (fortuitously given to the author), it tells the great lengths the project's masterminds , Montagu and Cholomondley went through to create a believable ruse. From finding an age-appropriate body, to falsifying documents, writing 'love' letters, planting used ticket stubs - they created a detailed back story that would make their subterfuge believable. Much attention and care was given to the clinical and technical aspects of storage, transportation and delivery of the corpse - again showing the levels of detail and planning undertaken. The book also gives historical accounts of people (major and minor) on both sides that contributed to the Operation's design and it's deceit. To the author's credit - Allied and Axis characters are written objectively - their story is larger than the moral ambiguity of the war in which they were in. 
 One writing style, I didn't enjoy was the amount of detail that the author uses to seemingly justify the amount of research conducted. Minor players - whom you easily forget - have many pages written on their past - family, school life and loves - it did feel labored at times. I suppose when one is writing a historical piece, one is at pains to fact-check and properly reference - but there needs to be some balance, I felt. 
 On the whole, however - an engaging read. It provides amazing insight into the world of espionage and deception. It also celebrates heroes and villains - that due to their different callings made extreme sacrifices for which the reader is asked to judge the morality. I would recommend it for anyone liking World War 2, history and the espionage genre.