A Shadow in Moscow
A Cold War Novel
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4.7 • 18 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In the thick of the Cold War, a betrayal at the highest level risks the lives of two courageous female spies: MI6’s best Soviet agent and the CIA’s newest Moscow recruit.
Vienna, 1954
After losing everyone she loves in the final days of World War II, Ingrid Bauer agrees to a hasty marriage with a gentle Soviet embassy worker and follows him home to Moscow. But nothing within the Soviet Union’s totalitarian regime is what it seems, including her new husband, whom Ingrid suspects works for the KGB. Inspired by her daughter’s birth, Ingrid risks everything and reaches out in hope to the one country she understands and trusts—Britain, the country of her mother’s birth. She begins passing intelligence to MI6, navigating a world of secrets and lies, light and shadow.
Moscow, 1980
A student in the Foreign Studies Initiative, Anya Kadinova finishes her degree at Georgetown University and boards a flight home to Moscow, leaving behind the man she loves and a country she’s grown to respect. Though raised by dedicated and loyal Soviet parents, Anya soon questions an increasingly oppressive and paranoid regime at the height of the Cold War. Then the KGB murders her best friend and Anya chooses her side. Working in a military research lab, she relays Soviet plans and schematics to the CIA in an effort to end the 1980s arms race.
The past catches up to the present when an unprecedented act of treachery threatens all agents operating within Eastern Europe, and both Ingrid and Anya find themselves in a race for their lives against time and the KGB.
“Eloquently portrays the incredible contributions of women in history, the extraordinary depths of love, and, perhaps most important, the true cost of freedom.” —Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Veil
An exciting story of two brave female spies in Cold War MoscowIncludes discussion questions for book clubs
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her nail-biting latest, Reay (The London House) toggles between the lives of mother and daughter spies. In 1944, Ingrid Bauer is living in Nazi-occupied Vienna when her parents are killed by the SS for working for the British Foreign Service. Heartbroken, Ingrid remains in Vienna and in 1954 marries a Soviet embassy worker. The two soon relocate to Moscow, where Ingrid begins to worry her husband is a KGB officer as she takes stock of his suspicious behavior many friends who are affiliated with the agency. After she becomes a mother, though, she sets out to create a freer world for her daughter and contacts her parents' MI6 connections with an offer to spy. In 1980, Anya Kadinova is attending Georgetown University as part of the Foreign Studies Initiative. Upon returning to Moscow, she pines for her American boyfriend and, disillusioned by being surveilled by the KGB, becomes a CIA operative. After securing a job as an engineer reporting to the Soviet Minister of Defense, she funnels weapons intel to the U.S. As the two pursue their missions (Ingrid's continues into the 1980s) they must draw on faith and bravery to evade Soviet clutches, and Anya dreams of reuniting with her love. Reay builds a immersive world behind the Iron Curtain, full of competing loyalties and a constant, chilling sense of paranoia. Readers will be enthralled.
Customer Reviews
Shadow
Excellent book about female spies in Russia. Well researched. The author did a great job of pouring her soul into the characters, especially Anya. It is a love story but in respect to one’s family, friends and country. She lefty out steamy sex scenes between the characters which was appreciated.