Genre Fiction
![Beatriz Williams - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_beatriz_williams.jpg)
Our Woman in Moscow: A Novel
"A captivating Cold War page-turner." - Real Simple
The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion.
In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family's sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West's most vital secrets?
Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn't seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.
But the complex truth behind Iris's marriage defies Ruth's understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives returns with a gripping and profoundly human story of Cold War espionage and family devotion.
In the autumn of 1948, Iris Digby vanishes from her London home with her American diplomat husband and their two children. The world is shocked by the family's sensational disappearance. Were they eliminated by the Soviet intelligence service? Or have the Digbys defected to Moscow with a trove of the West's most vital secrets?
Four years later, Ruth Macallister receives a postcard from the twin sister she hasn't seen since their catastrophic parting in Rome in the summer of 1940, as war engulfed the continent and Iris fell desperately in love with an enigmatic United States Embassy official named Sasha Digby. Within days, Ruth is on her way to Moscow, posing as the wife of counterintelligence agent Sumner Fox in a precarious plot to extract the Digbys from behind the Iron Curtain.
But the complex truth behind Iris's marriage defies Ruth's understanding, and as the sisters race toward safety, a dogged Soviet KGB officer forces them to make a heartbreaking choice between two irreconcilable loyalties.
Editorial Reviews
"I think Beatriz Williams is writing the best historical fiction out there. It's lush with period detail but feels immediate." - Elin Hilderbrand
"A thrilling novel of spying, duplicity and bad decisions during the heart of the Cold War…the plot races into white-knuckle territory." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"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." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Superb...Williams has created her own vivid plot wound around a true story." - Seattle Times
"Fans will be riveted by the complex family relationships and the intriguing portrayal of espionage." - Publishers Weekly
"A captivating Cold War page-turner." - Real Simple
"This is Williams at the top of her game." - Historical Novel Society
"Williams imagines the adventures of a world-famous aviator, who disappears in 1937 during a solo, around-the-world flight, in this engaging tale of courage, intrigue, and adventure…Williams builds irresistible tension with the alternating timelines as the fate of Irene and Sam unfolds with shrewd twists and turns that build to an unexpected jolt. Williams's fans will devour this meaty tale." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Her Last Flight
"Beatriz Williams deftly fits together the characters, stories, and themes that the narrative services into a cohesive whole. The pieces all align perfectly, and she has shaped them together brilliantly. Her Last Flight is a gem of a book." - New York Journal of Books on Her Last Flight
"Inventive...What if Amelia Earhart had not only survived her last flight, but found true romance." - Kirkus Reviews on Her Last Flight
"Williams captivates…Historical fiction ...
"A thrilling novel of spying, duplicity and bad decisions during the heart of the Cold War…the plot races into white-knuckle territory." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"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." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Superb...Williams has created her own vivid plot wound around a true story." - Seattle Times
"Fans will be riveted by the complex family relationships and the intriguing portrayal of espionage." - Publishers Weekly
"A captivating Cold War page-turner." - Real Simple
"This is Williams at the top of her game." - Historical Novel Society
"Williams imagines the adventures of a world-famous aviator, who disappears in 1937 during a solo, around-the-world flight, in this engaging tale of courage, intrigue, and adventure…Williams builds irresistible tension with the alternating timelines as the fate of Irene and Sam unfolds with shrewd twists and turns that build to an unexpected jolt. Williams's fans will devour this meaty tale." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Her Last Flight
"Beatriz Williams deftly fits together the characters, stories, and themes that the narrative services into a cohesive whole. The pieces all align perfectly, and she has shaped them together brilliantly. Her Last Flight is a gem of a book." - New York Journal of Books on Her Last Flight
"Inventive...What if Amelia Earhart had not only survived her last flight, but found true romance." - Kirkus Reviews on Her Last Flight
"Williams captivates…Historical fiction ...
Readers Top Reviews
TazbeetKindle Fr
Based on actual events in the UK in the 1950s, this historical accounts mixed with fictions is a must read.
Kindle TazbeetKi
The stories of war and spies are quite intriguing, and this one was well written. I would recommend this book.
Carol K. Bajorste
I gave it 5 stars because it held my focus til the end. I don't always like spy stories because they confuse me but I love Beatriz Williams' writing. If this was her first attempt at a spy story, kudos to her! I hope she'll write more. I also enjoy the way the author always gives an interesting love angle and makes family so important.
Mal WarwickCarol
In May 1951 two senior British Foreign Office officials disappeared. They surfaced again five years later in Moscow, having defected to the Soviet Union. It soon came to light that Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean were among a number of Cambridge University undergraduates who joined the Communist Party in the 1930s and enlisted as agents for the NKVD. Later, they and their colleagues—Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross—were dubbed the Cambridge Five. Operating unscathed for as long as two decades, they betrayed many of the UK’s most closely guarded secrets. As Beatriz Williams points out in the Author’s Note to her novel, Our Woman in Moscow,, “their names are as synonymous with treason as Benedict Arnold’s is in the United States.” In her story, Williams imagines American defectors in Moscow during the same era. Williams loosely bases her book on the circumstances of Donald and Melinda Maclean’s contentious marriage. But I emphasize the word “loosely,” since most of the major players in the story are American, not British. (Guy Burgess alone appears in the story, although a senior officer of MI6 does play a role as well.) For Williams, the central characters are the Macallister twins, Ruth and Iris, both Americans, and Lyudmila Ivanova, an NKVD counterespionage officer. The story advances through alternating chapters from the perspective of each of the three women in turn. And the scene frequently shifts from 1940 to 1948 to 1951 and back again. A Communist who “comes from money” Ruth Macallister, a former fashion model, runs a New York modeling agency. She’s the more assertive and outgoing of the twins. But her sister, Iris, falls for a handsome and charismatic US Foreign Service officer called Sasha Digby. (His real name, we learn, is Cornelius Alexander Digby III.) Sasha is the son of a Texas oil executive. In fact, it turns out that all the Americans in the story “come from money.” They all fit neatly into the stereotypical WASP mold. But it quickly becomes clear that Sasha is a dedicated Communist, and he carelessly lets slip to Iris and her friends that he spied for Russia during World War II—and apparently continued to do so after the war. Defectors in Moscow and the NKVD By 1951, Sasha, Iris, and their three children have been living as defectors in Moscow for three years. Enter FBI agent Charles Sumner Fox, a former star fullback on the Yale football team with the physique to match. Taking Ruth into his confidence, he persuades her to travel to Rome as his “wife” to extract the Digby family and return them to the United States. Meanwhile, Lyudmila watches developments in Moscow from NKVD headquarters, suspecting Sasha’s loyalty and Ruth and Sumner’s intentions. As events gallop toward a conclusion, the three women at the center of the story advance toward an explosive meeting. Williams wr...
