About the Book: 

• 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.
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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.

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Review: 
Ingrid Bauer has just lost her family in the aftermath of World War II in Vienna, Austria. She agrees to a hasty marriage to boyfriend, Leo and a move to Moscow with his new promotion, not suspecting that he is KGB.  Living within the Soviet Union's totalitarian regime, Ingrid begins to feel stifled and notices things about Leo's work that he doesn't say.  With the birth of their daughter, Ingrid makes a decision to make the world a better place and reaches out to a friend in Britain who connects her with MI6.  Ingrid becomes a shadow, working in the background, never being seen and collecting any information that comes her way.   

Anya Kadinova finished her degree at Georgetown in 1980 as part of the Foreign Studies Initiative. Before she leaves for home in Moscow, she is asked to make a difficult decision, but chooses to go home to Moscow.  Returning to Moscow's totalitarian regime during the height of the Cold War is a difficult adjustment, but Anya is happy working in the research lab she was assigned.  However, when a friend is killed by the KGB, Anya decides she can be idle no more and contacts the US CIA risking everything to pass on schematics from her military research lab. 

A Shadow in Moscow is an intricate and detailed look at how two female spies operated in the Soviet Union spanning from the 1950's-1980's. The writing is much like Ingrid and Anya's positions, understated and not revealing much.  Both women's stories have a slow moving start and describe the harsh realities of their setting in Moscow in detail, from limited food, to bugged homes and untrusting neighbors.  Told in alternating viewpoints moving forward through time until Ingrid and Anya's timelines finally meet up. As Ingrid and Anya's storylines begin to converge, more details of their dangerous positions unfold as well as their true personalities and how their actions relate.  I was surprised at how the slow burn in the beginning quickly turned into a suspenseful, dangerous and quickly moving spy thriller.  I was also truly surprised at the link between Ingrid and Anya as their stories converged and how I had missed it.  The ending was exciting, heart wrenching and profound.  

About the Author: 

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.

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