The Secretary by Deborah Lawrenson.
If a Cold War thriller is your go to book, then you have to check out The Secretary by Deborah Lawrenson.
Moscow, 1958.
At the height of the Cold War, secretary Lois Vale is on a deep-cover MI6 mission to identify a diplomatic traitor. She can trust only one man: Johann, a German journalist also working covertly for the British secret service. As the trail leads to Vienna and the Black Sea, Lois and Johann begin an affair but as love grows, so does the danger to Lois.
A tense Cold War spy story told from the perspective of a bright, young, working-class woman recruited to MI6 at a time when men were in charge of making history and women were expendable.
Four Stars
Set during the Cold War, this story is about an agent who goes undercover in Moscow to discover who the traitor is. While trying to balance her disguise, along with fitting in, Lois has her work cut out. Not knowing who to trust, and knowing that wherever she goes she is being watched by KGB informants makes for a tense atmosphere Even in the apparent safety of her apartment, there are signs of surveillance and her flatmate is hardly someone who understands personal boundaries. But no matter what Lois must keep her disguise in place because if she were to be found out, MI6 have made it quite clear that she is on her own.
Although at times the story was a little stilted, especially when it came to the dangerous parts, just as things were getting interesting the story would jump to the next day, but the characters themselves came across as very believable. I particularly liked the protagonist, Lois, who is a very intelligent woman who is a remarkably good agent, but often battles with her desires to settle down and have a family. The unfairness that she feels if she were to marry and would therefore lose her job makes for a stark reminder of how much women had to sacrifice because of their sex.
This is what I would call an easy read for a Sunday afternoon, a perfect story for curling up on the sofa wit your favourite beverage and reading the entire book in one sitting. I thought for the most part this book was very well written and I did enjoy it very much.
Deborah Lawrenson
Deborah Lawrenson spent her childhood moving around the world from Kuwait to China, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore with diplomatic service parents. She read English at Cambridge University and worked as a journalist in London. She is the author of nine novels, including the critically acclaimed The Art of Falling, which was a WHSmith Fresh Talent novel, and The Lantern, which was picked as a summer read for the Channel 4 TV Book Club in 2011. In October 2016, 300 Days of Sun was selected as one of the Great Group Reads for National Reading Group Month, run by the Women's National Book Association in the USA. The Secretary was inspired by her late mother's work for British intelligence. The 1958 diary she wrote at the height of the Cold War in Moscow provides authentic background details.
Deborah lives in Kent and spends as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, the atmospheric setting for The Lantern and two Death in Provence novels, co-written as Serena Kent.
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