Our Woman in Moscow

Williams (Her Last Flight) captivates with the story of an American woman’s effort to reunite with her twin sister after her defection to the Soviet Union. In 1952, Ruth Macallister, a secretary in New York City and de facto manager of a modeling agency, receives a visit from FBI agent Sumner Fox with questions about her twin sister, Iris, whom she has not seen for 12 years. Sumner tells Ruth her sister defected to Russia in 1948 with her husband, Sasha Digby, a former diplomat who worked with the twins’ brother at the U.S. embassy in Rome in 1940. Now that the KGB suspects Sasha of working as a double agent, the Digbys’ lives are in danger. Sumner devises a plan to have Ruth travel to Moscow to help Iris during her pregnancy, and he will accompany her undercover as her spouse. Ruth and Sumner’s efforts to extract the Digbys from the Soviet Union, however, are complicated by the KGB. Williams sharply observes the inequities women faced at the end of WWII and the simmering suspense of the Cold War. Historical fiction fans will be riveted by the complex family relationships and the intriguing portrayal of espionage. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (June)