Cbr16bingo Detente between nations and between sisters
This is a spy thriller set in WWII and the decade following, but it is built around the story of estranged twin sisters. Ruth, the outgoing striking blonde, and Iris, the quiet mousy artist, grew up in a well-to-do New York family that was brought low by the stock market crash. When their brother Harry gets a job in the US foreign service in Italy on the eve of WWII, the sisters go to live there. Ruth has success as a model while Iris spends time visiting museums and drawing. Iris’ chance encounter at a museum with Sasha Digby, a fellow American working at the US embassy, leads to a passionate love affair but it also divides the sisters just as Germany invades France. For 12 years, Ruth and Iris maintain silence toward each other until the summer of 1952, when Iris sends Ruth two unexpected missives from Moscow, asking her to come help her through a difficult pregnancy. From here, Beatriz Williams unspools the story of the sisters’ break and Iris’ husband’s involvement in spying for the Russians. The story is pretty exciting, especially at the end, and I found this book to be a really entertaining read even though I have a few beefs with it.
Williams starts the story with Ruth in New York in 1952. She is a smart, successful single woman who is second in command at a modeling agency. Ruth likes drinking, smoking and running the show, and she seems comfortable living without a man or children. She wears pants and promotes the career of a Black model. Clearly Ruth is ahead of her time and a force to be reckoned with, kind of like Kathryn Hepburn. Ruth’s chapters are narrated by her, and she makes it clear that she does not care about Iris anymore. Iris didn’t listen to Ruth and hitched her star to the wagon of a man now known to have been spying for the Russians during the War and in the years after. Now, after disappearing from London in 1948, it’s clear that the Digby family (with their three children) are living in Moscow. Ruth doesn’t know what to make of the postcard and letter she receives from Iris, asking her to come to Moscow to help her with her pregnancy; Iris has had a history of difficulty pregnancies but why reach out now? Then an FBI agent named Sumner Fox makes contact with Ruth about her sister. It all seems pretty fishy to Ruth, but she can’t avoid the nagging feeling that her sister needs her. Ruth decides to get to Italy and from there try to make her way to Moscow, but Sumner Fox (and others) are watching her. Sumner convinces her that she needs to work with him to save Iris and her family, and so the two hatch a plan to travel to Moscow as a newly married couple who are there to help Iris.
The story of Iris starts in Italy 1940 and shows us how first of all, no one takes her very seriously and everyone thinks she is naive and needs to be protected. Her sister and brother are the worst offenders here. Iris has always lived in Ruth’s shadow and has always been made to feel as if she were not enough somehow. When she meets a tall, thin, striking American diplomat at a museum in Italy, she realizes that maybe she is enough after all. Sasha Digby is an idealist who had flirted with communism at university; he believes it is within his and others’ power to make the world safer and peaceful. When Sasha rescues Iris after she gets hit by a motorcycle, he dotes on her and makes his intentions clear. They start an affair that Iris thinks is quite secret, but Ruth is not fooled. When war breaks out in France and all Americans must get out of Europe, Harry and Iris try to strong arm Iris into going home, but she resists, especially when she learns of her sister’s deception toward her and Sasha. In June of 1940, Ruth sails home but Iris, pregnant, stays with Sasha, marries him and follows him to his diplomatic posts in Europe throughout the war.
While Sasha and Iris’ love affair is passionate and Sasha seems to trust Iris with some secrets, we and Iris soon learn that he keeps even more to himself. In the years after the war, when the thrill of wartime espionage has passed, Sasha drinks more and gets sloppy. He keeps company with men whom Iris does not like or trust, but Iris’ love and devotion to Sasha is unwavering. While in London, Iris meets two men who will have great impact on her life — a British diplomat named Philip Beauchamp and the American Sumner Fox. In 1948, Sasha’s sloppiness and revelations of traitors and spies within the US and British foreign service lead to the Digbys fleeing to Moscow where it seems Sasha is a hero.
In addition to the story of Iris and Ruth, there is another story that Williams spins within the KGB. An agent there named Lyudmilla knows that there is a spy in their midst; someone knows and is exposing their agents to the British. Lyudmilla is an interesting character — devoted to the Soviet Union and willing to give up anyone for the good of the country. She also is smart enough to know that her boss is an idiot who cannot be trusted. As the story progresses, we see that Lyudmilla actually does have a pretty good sense of whom to watch, but will her net close in on the Digby family before Ruth and Sumner can save them?
As mentioned above, I did find this story a thrilling read but I have a couple of quibbles. One is that for some reason, Ruth narrates her own chapters but Iris’ chapters are told in third person. It just seemed a little weird to me. Ruth was a less interesting character to me than Iris, and my sympathies were with Iris for much of the story. My bigger beef is that the plot twist, which is a pretty good one, was signaled from very early on and it absolutely did not have to be. I think the story would have had more power if we hadn’t already figured out the big surprise way in advance of its reveal. The ending also felt a bit rushed to me, and Lyudmilla’s story line took a kind of weird turn, although it did fit with the character as Williams drew her I suppose. Overall, I liked the novel and if you are into WWII, spies and the USSR, this one is pretty good.
