Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

June 15, 2022

Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams

In the autumn of 1948, Ruth Macalister's twin sister Iris and her family vanish. Her husband was an American diplomat, and everyone in diplomatic circles is shocked by their disappearance. Were they kidnapped, did they defect, did the Soviets eliminate them? Four years after they went missing, Ruth receives a postcard from Iris, asking her to come to Moscow since she is about to have another baby. With an American intelligence officer posing as her husband, Ruth travels to Moscow to get Iris and her family out.

Williams writes historical fiction, often with a romantic suspense angle. I'm not big on spy books but this one had at least one interesting twist. The story is loosely based on the Cambridge 5, a spy ring passing information to the Soviets after World War II. It's not my favorite of Williams' books but certainly kept me engaged. I think my favorite was the book she wrote about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor after his abdication.

1940's Moscow

Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams

June 27, 2020

Her Last Flight by Beatriz Williams

Photojournalist Janey Everett has long been fascinated by legendary aviators Irene Foster and Sam Mallory who both disappeared in 1937.  At the time of their disappearances, Mallory was fighting with the loyalist forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, while Foster was participating in an around-the-world aviation race before she vanished somewhere over Africa.  A chance meeting with an RAF pilot in 1944 leads Janey to believe that Irene not only survived but that she is living in seclusion in Hawaii.  Determined to write a photo-biography of forgotten aviation pioneer Sam Mallory, Janey sets out to find Foster to fill in the gaps in Mallory’s story.

Very loosely based on the life of Amelia Earhart, author Beatriz Williams started out with Earhart's story but imagined a different ending for the famous aviatrix.  Janey and Irene are both strong-minded independent women who work in male-dominated fields.  Both had difficult childhoods, but Janey’s backstory is especially heart-breaking.  Following dual timelines, Williams weaves the many threads of the story together to a satisfying and surprising conclusion.  I much prefer her historical fiction to the historical romances that she writes with Lauren Willig and Karen White.  This is one of the best books I've read in 2020.

Like many people, I have always been fascinated by Amelia Earhart, and I keep hoping that someone will finally discover what really happened to her.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in return for a review.

The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams

Friday, June 28, 2019

The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams

In December 1943, Leonora (Lulu) Thorpe travels to London to meet with a representative from the British War Office regarding her missing husband, who was captured as a spy while on his way to London and is being held in a German prison.  The couple met and married in Nassau in the Bahamas, where Lulu was working as a society correspondent covering the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She implores them to send a rescue party for him, or to let her go and try to free him, attempting to use information about the Windsors as leverage, but her attempt at blackmail backfires.

Although it's almost 500 pages, once I started The Golden Hour, I couldn't put it down and when I got to the last third of the book, I spent a whole afternoon reading.  Full of actual historical events, this is Beatriz Williams at her best, similar in tone to Summer Wives, another great vacation read (much better than her collaboration with her friends Karen White and Lauren Willig, The Glass Ocean, a romance novel set on the doomed Lusitania).  Take this one to the beach with you or throw it in your luggage for vacation reading.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in return for a review.