Our Woman in Moscow

"I’ve always loved old-school thrillers – to me, there’s nothing better than le Carré by the fireplace. But their protagonists were always men. I wanted to read about women like those hard-boiled men, smart and sharp-witted loners caught up in political and historical forces larger than themselves. In Beatriz Williams’ Our Woman in Moscow, I’ve found one: Ruth Macallister, a former model who’s thrust into a Cold War missing-person mystery after her twin sister, Iris, and Iris’ U.S. diplomat husband disappear in London – and then reappear, four years later, in Moscow. The less glamorous Iris saved her sister’s life when they were children; now it’s Ruth’s turn to do the rescuing. Williams borrows liberally from the thriller and noir genres, with dead drops, double-crosses and lots of drinking and smoking. Real spies – of the Cambridge variety – make appearances. Our Woman in Moscow is a breezy, welcome twist on a genre that, decades after the end of the various wars – both World and Cold – I haven’t bored of yet."