FICTION

Our Woman in Moscow

Morrow. Jun. 2021. 448p. ISBN 9780063020788. $27.99. F
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Williams uses the true story of the Cambridge Five, a ring of spies who passed information to the Soviet Union during and just after World War II, as a jumping-off point for her newest historical novel (after Her Last Flight). In 1948, Iris Digby, her diplomat husband Sasha, and their two children suddenly disappear from their home in England. Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from Iris asking her to travel to Moscow, now behind the Iron Curtain, to help with her latest pregnancy. Though they’re twin sisters, Ruth and Iris haven’t spoken in more than a decade. Despite their estrangement, and because she’s been visited by a federal agent asking questions about Iris, Ruth is determined to help bring her sister home, even as the KGB is closing in.
VERDICT Williams has a sure hand in this deceptively quiet novel, told from the perspective of three different women. She expertly shifts between family drama and a suspenseful espionage plot, and makes every word and note count. Fans of Kate Quinn and Pam Jenoff will be looking for this one.
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