Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

January 26, 2023

Agent 6 by Tom Rob Smith

Leo Demidov, former KGB agent, and his family are living in reduced circumstances in Moscow since Leo left his position as one of Stalin's agents. But they are happy: Leo is a factory manager, his wife Raisa is a teacher, and their two daughters are in high school. When Raisa and the girls are given the opportunity to visit the U.S. as part of a goodwill tour, Leo has a bad feeling in his gut about the whole enterprise. But there isn't any choice in the matter, so his family heads off to America while Leo remains behind in Russia. The tour starts off well, but then disaster strikes and Leo's family is shattered. Leo resolves to find out who is responsible, no matter what measures he has to take, even if it takes the rest of his life.

Third in the Demidov series, and probably the last one, since Leo is back in the USSR after defecting to the U.S., in prison and awaiting trial. I'm sure many readers were dissatisfied with the ending, and while it wasn't a happy ending, it was a logical conclusion. I don't remember a lot about the Cold War, but I do know there were no fairy tale or magical endings when someone committed what the Soviets considered to be a crime against the state. 

Lubyanka Prison, Moscow

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

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

August 23, 2019

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

The words secretary and secret have the same Latin root.  The women who work as secretaries for the CIA are expected to prepare necessary documents and immediately forget what they have typed.

At the height of the Cold War, Irina is hired by the CIA as a secretary.  But it isn't her secretarial skills that the agency is interested in - they are far more interested in her Russian background and ability to blend in without attracting attention.  Sally Forrester, a long-time operative, trains Irina on how to dress, how to act, how to perform a switch without anyone noticing.  At first, Irina works as a courier, picking up and dropping off information and documents.  One of her most important assignments is to meet a British agent and pick up two rolls of microfilm that contain the Russian text for the novel Dr. Zhivago, which has been smuggled out of Soviet Russia.

At his dacha outside Moscow, Boris Pasternak has completed one of the greatest novels ever written, yet he is unable to obtain permission to have the text published in the Soviet Union.  The Communist government feels that since the story is set against the backdrop of the 1918 Russian Revolution, it is critical of the Soviet government.  Pasternak makes the momentous decision to smuggle the text out of Russia to Western Europe, where it will be translated and published to world-wide acclaim.  But Pasternak's decision has dire consequences for himself and his lover Olga (the inspiration for Lara).

Dr. Zhivago has always been one of my favorite novels, so I was fascinated by the background on how it came to be published.  I knew that Pasternak had been awarded the Nobel Prize for the novel, but I had no idea about the controversy that ensued.  Well-researched and vibrantly told, The Secrets We Kept will appeal to readers of historical fiction as well as anyone interested in Soviet Russia during the Cold War, Boris Pasternak, or a legendary literary love story.

Boris Pasternak - very brooding Russian look

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