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Monday, June 12, 2023

A Shadow in Moscow by Katherine Reay (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

 


What is your favorite book, movie, or TV show about a spy?

A Shadow in Moscow is an intriguing and unique cold war historical fiction novel.  It is a dual story told in both the 1940s/50s and 1980s.  In Vienna, Ingrid loses her family and everything she loves during WWII.  After the war, she marries a Soviet Embassy worker and follows him to Moscow.  She finds herself reaching out to her mother’s home country of England with information about the communist regime. 

Anya is a young Russian girl going to college in 1980.  She grows to respect the United States as she finishes her degree at Georgetown and also finds that she has fallen in love with an American, Scott.  She has to return to the USSR for her safety and her family’s safety.  After the KGB murders a good friend, Anya becomes a spy sending top secret information from a military research center to the CIA in hopes of ending the arms race.  Will either Ingrid or Anya be caught?

I have not read too many historical fiction novels set during the cold war and I really enjoyed this novel.  I enjoyed both stories equally, which is important in a dual narrative novel.  Both Ingrid and Anya are strong female leads with intriguing back stories.  I have enjoyed Katherine Reay’s novels in the past and this one did not disappoint with great characters and an riveting plot.  The plot and romance were both slow burn as the novel set up the story, but I was intrigued and couldn’t stop reading once the story got revved up.  I love a good spy story with all of the feels!

This novel has a great author’s note and discussion questions at the end.  I feel like I learned a lot about the Cold War in this novel.

Book Source: Review Copy from HarperMuse.   Thank-you! I received a complimentary copy of this book as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


QUICK FACTS

·       Title: A Shadow in Moscow: A Cold War Novel

·       Author: Katherine Reay

·       Genre: Historical Fiction, Espionage Thrillers, Inspirational Fiction

·       Publisher: ‎Harper Muse (June 13, 2023)

·       Length: (384) pages

·       Format: Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook 

·       ISBN: 978-1400243037

·       Tour Dates: June 5-19, 2023

 

BOOK 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.

 

PRAISE FOR A SHADOW IN MOSCOW

  • “In her nail-biting latest . . . Reay builds an immersive world behind the Iron Curtain, full of competing loyalties and a constant, chilling sense of paranoia. Readers will be enthralled.”— Publishers Weekly
  • ”Rich with fascinating historical detail and unforgettable characters!”— Kristy Woodson Harvey, New York Times Bestselling author of The Wedding Veil

·       “…intrigue, twists and turns, acts of bravery and sacrificial love, and an unforgettable cold war setting with clever daring women at the helm.”— Susan Meissner, USA Today Bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things

 

PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOKSHOP | GOODREADS | BOOKBUB

 

AUTHOR BIO

Katherine Reay is a national bestselling and award-winning author who has enjoyed a lifelong affair with books. She publishes both fiction and nonfiction, holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University, and currently lives outside Chicago, Illinois, with her husband and three children.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | PINTEREST | GOODREADS

 


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