Books like The Widow Spy

Not one but two superlative women across two timelines, from the 1950s at the height of the Cold War to the 1980s, in this twisty tale of espionage under the noses of the KGB in Moscow.

I really appreciated the depth of historical research and the human insights as this evocation of Cold War tradecraft gripped my imagination. These are women of the highest courage: Anya’s role working in a military research lab prompts her to pass vital Soviet designs to the CIA in an effort to end the 1980s arms race.

This clearly draws on “the billion dollar spy” Adolf Tolkachev’s spying for the West and highlights Reay’s use of real-life events and historical accuracy while giving us a fascinating feminine twist.

Love, loyalty, and betrayal combine in a chillingly real early-1960s Cold War nightmare for Lily, the wife of a civil servant inadvertently caught up in a no-win situation after helping a friend, then accused of passing papers to the Russians in London.

What resonates with me is the terrible aftermath and the effect on his family of political intrigue more powerful than any of them knows. Or does Lily’s husband know exactly what he has done? What I love about this novel is the quiet way the tension grips until the marriage and family are no longer ordinary.

The writing, as always from Helen Dunmore, is lyrical, elegant, and restrained, adding another dimension of pleasure.

This meticulously researched history of the unsung women of the British intelligence services is like a master key that will unlock a vault of quiet heroines who were never known in their lifetimes. Dr Hubbard-Hall explores the world of ‘secretaries’ and administrators who almost always knew as much, if more, as the men of the Secret Service.

I particularly enjoyed learning about Kathleen Pettigrew, who inspired Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny, and the intrepid Rita Winsor and Ena Molesworth, who set up an extraordinary ‘travel agency’ to gain access to Russia, China, and other restricted countries in the 1950s. What makes this book shine is Hubbard-Hall’s ability to tell a rip-roaring story so that the lady spies, with all their quirks and daring, come to glorious life on the page.

I enjoyed this distinctly unusual take on a Cold War novel. Martha is not a spy; she is a young new wife living in Moscow in 1973 with her rookie diplomat husband. She’s not even a wife in every sense, as her husband Kit is a gay childhood friend using her as cover.

The closed embassy community is well-evoked, especially the low-level threat to Westerners. People–and even places–disappear, and suicides happen. Wives must obey the rules for their own safety, and there are consequences when they do not, such as when Martha makes a dangerous friend.

Far from the usual Moscow thriller, this is more subtle and transporting, not least because Martha does actually like Moscow and Russia, and wants to explore and understand what she sees.

Roosevelt's Lost Alliances is perhaps the book that has had the most tangible influence on my own work. Seeing how Frank Costigliola highlighted and analysed the political consequences of personal preferences and relations was eye-opening.

When the book appeared, some reviewers claimed that Costigliola made leaders' personalities all-important and overlooked structural factors. Because I had read that criticism before I read the book, I was surprised to find a nuanced account of how personal and political factors intersected. I found those reviews blatantly unfair.

By carefully analysing their personal preferences and relations, Costigliola did not claim that a few powerful men determined history. Rather, he showed how emotional and cultural factors, which are surely structural, influenced them and their decision-making.

I think that this is the best book about the politics of the Soviet-Afghan War. Artemy Kalinovsky writes in a vivid style and shows the intricate behind-the-scenes discussions between Soviets and Americans that led to the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in the late 1980s.

Many historical books are a dull read, but this book is not. I really like how Kalinovsky helps the reader feel as if they are at the center of the story.

Here is the ultimate insider’s story of what led up to the deal that Hitler made with Stalin in late August of 1939. At 34, a dashing Harvard graduate named Charles “Chip” Bohlen had just become the senior Russian-language officer in charge of political reporting at the American Embassy. Though his chief job was to find out if the Soviets were making a deal with Hitler, Bohlen couldn’t get a word out of the Russians. So he turned to a young German diplomat named “Johnny” Herwarth who was secretly in touch with the German resistance. This book is the fascinating story of their covert communications on the eve of the “Non-Aggression Agreement” between Hitler and Stalin—the deal that led directly to their joint invasion of Poland in September.

Like Sebag Montefiore and Mawdsley, Raack was the first diplomatic historian to re-evaluate Stalin’s foreign policy in light of documents which became available after the collapse of the USSR in 1991. He exploded numerous myths about the supposed Soviet interest in “collective security” in the 1930s, showing that this was mere projection on the part of French and British and Czechoslovak statesmen who saw what they wanted to see in Stalin’s foreign policy, which was just as territorially “revisionist” as that of Italy, Germany, and Japan, just as expansionist – but better camouflaged.

Leffler’s book is about much more than North Korea, but it covers world events that are critical to understanding the communist Korean state, its birth, and its conflict with the United States. I drew heavily on Leffler’s work in my own book to place North Korea within the context of surrounding geopolitical developments.

I love reading about how the strength of conviction, not strength of arms, defeated Communism. The work of these two leaders, John Paul II and President Reagan, was as consequential as that of Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt. A lot of their story is known, but a lot remained unknown... until now. 

This is a fascinating portrait of two world leaders that survived assassination. It is a strange coincidence, don't you think? They did. They believed that they were spared by God as part of the "DP," as Reagan spoke of it: the "Divine Plan" to rid the world of Soviet Communism. It is a fight they have passed down to us, as well.