July 15, 2020
A British spy puts her life on the line for a friend after World War II. Livy Nash had a tough war and difficulties adjusting to whatever normal life the late 1940s provided. Heavy drinking helped her cope. Ian Fleming, who runs an unofficial spy agency, gave her a job as reporter/spy. Now she's in Paris on the verge of losing her nerve when a report comes in that the agent code-named Nightshade has suddenly resumed sending radio signals. Nightshade is Margot Dupont, Livy's only real friend, who vanished after being dropped into occupied France. The British government, which thinks she could be a captive of the Soviets, hopes to turn Yuri Kostin, an MBG agent stationed in Washington, who may know where Margot is being held. Because Livy had a fling with Kostin during her dissolute years, Fleming asks her to go to Washington to work on him, though he gives her dire warnings about the dangers. The FBI, which runs the show there, doesn't think much of Livy or the plan, but she refuses to be patronized. Using her cover story as a stringer for Fleming's news agency, she artfully runs into Kostin at the theater. She works to gain Kostin's trust, bringing him slightly outdated intelligence and encouraging his sexual attraction. But she's in danger from the Russians, who don't trust her, and she can't count on the FBI as she plays a dangerous game in an all-out effort to save her friend. Plenty of spycraft and nonstop action, with a shocking ending that points to future adventures.
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July 20, 2020
Set in 1947, Huie’s harrowing sequel to 2019’s Spitfire finds Ian Fleming, the director of London’s Kemsley News Service, running foreign correspondents for newspapers all over the world. Some are actual journalists, while some, like Livy Nash, are freelance agents for MI6. When Livy worked as a spy in occupied France during WWII, she had only one real friend, fellow agent Margot Dupont. But Margot was listed as missing and is presumed dead—until the day MI6 receives a wireless signal from an unknown location with the word Nightshade, Margot’s call sign. To find Margot, Livy rekindles her wartime affair with Russian agent Yuri Kostin, now a major in the MGB. For Livy, the end of the war brought no peace, and her new assignment takes its toll on her already fragile psyche. Livy faces brutality, betrayal, double-crosses, and worse as she takes advantage of there being little honor among spies. Huie does a masterly job of wringing all the glamour out of the intelligence game. Agent: Carrie Pestritto, Laura Dail Literary.