Our Woman in Moscow

Our Woman in Moscow by Beatriz Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Touted as a spy book, this has less to do with actual spying shenanigans and more to do with how someone would become a spy and then how leading a double life affected their personal life. The story is mostly told from the points of view of two sisters--one married to a spy and another recruited to help execute a plan to help her sister defect. Loosely based on the life of real spies, this book does a good job of showing the effects of the strain of spying--the paranoia, drinking, rationalization, etc. that don't show up in most popular spy novels. However, I do wish Williams would dig in a bit more. She does a good job of showing how the wife fell in love, but how did she keep rationalizing after they were married and it was apparent what was happening? Her motivations seem to be purely out of love--first for her husband and then for her lover--I was wishing for a woman who acted on her own thoughts and beliefs. A few more pages of her grappling with knowing what her husband does, or more details on how she carried out her own spying and how she kept it from her husband, and how that made her feel, would have made this book even more compelling. Her sister seems slightly more developed, even if it makes her an ambitious, sexual, hot-headed sister. A good spy novel if you like glitz and romance over psychological exploration.

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