This month, my women’s fiction blog features a Q&A with Katherine Reay, bestselling author of ten novels. Her latest book, A Shadow In Moscow, a riveting tale of two women who are spying behind Russia’s iron curtain during different cold war eras, was released in June.
Q: Your more recent books, including A SHADOW IN MOSCOW, feel like they’ve taken a big turn from your previous books, such as DEAR MR. KNIGHTLEY and THE PRINTED LETTER BOOKSHOP, which solidly occupied the realm of women’s fiction. Even so, elements of women’s fiction are strongly present in these newer books. Can you tell us more about how the inner journey and personal growth of your female characters add to the story of your newer books?
A: So true, there absolutely has been a bit of a transition. I not only moved from contemporary to historical fiction, but added more elements of suspense and a more proactive journey for the female leads of these later stories. Part of the switch came from wanting to bring the “past” out of backstory or memory and set it on the page for the reader, alluding to real times, peoples, and places we can point to and have changed our lives. I also felt drawn to strong women making tough choices and found a few great ones within history for my inspiration. It’s been a wonderful shift for me as a writer and I hope readers are enjoying it as well.
Q: After centering so many of your books in the more genteel world of Jane Austen and the readers who love her, what made you decide to take on the world of espionage? Just time to shake things up? Or was there an ah-ha moment that made you know that this was the book you had to write?
A: That’s such a good question. My first books, while alluding to a ton of Jane Austen, often surprise people because they aren’t retellings so much as homages in a very contemporary context. Dear Mr. Knightley, for example, features a very un-Emma-like heroine who survived a traumatic childhood in the Chicago foster care system. But, she like all of us at times, perhaps, finds consolation, comfort, and even a safe landing place within Jane Austen’s world. I suppose I’ll always love that Austen gives us that, especially as Pride and Prejudice does make a brief appearance in A Shadow in Moscow.
Yet you are right, I left behind those direct references and allusions to dig into the lives and struggles of spies in WWII (The London House), the Cold War (A Shadow in Moscow), and at the fall of the Berlin Wall (The Berlin Letters). I think the “ah-ha” moment came when I realized history has such amazing touch points that feel increasingly relevant today — much like Jane Austen has always felt relevant to me. I suppose history, and some of the amazing people who have lived before us, is now providing me with my next focal point.
Q: A SHADOW IN MOSCOW paints an incredibly vivid picture of Russia during the Cold War and in the 80’s. Have you ever traveled there personally? Or did you just do tons of research? The same can be said of the spy craft elements in the story. How did you learn so much about espionage? Was it research and reading? Or do you have a secret life we don’t know about?
A: Part of me wishes I could lead such a secret life. But after digging into it, I know I’d be a horrible spy. Like Anya’s handler tells her on a cold dark day in Moscow, “Everyone breaks.” I’d crumble immediately. So, with no secret life to draw upon, most of my knowledge did come from research — primarily books, both fiction and nonfiction. That said, I did visit Russia in 1985, the year A Shadow in Moscow ends, and I used those memories and emotions within the story. I think the real gems, however, came from chatting with a couple women who grew up in 1980s Moscow. Their descriptions of how they lived and felt, and the constrictions around their lives, were invaluable in creating Ingrid and Anya’s inner and external worlds.
Q: The book involves two female spies from different eras whose motives and personalities differ considerably. Tell us more about them. Which was your favorite character to write?
A: It’s such a lame answer to say both, but it’s the truth. Anya and Ingrid are so different that there was no competition between their stories or voices, but rather a synergy was created in pushing them both as far as I could. In reading A Shadow in Moscow, you’ll note they go through many of the same emotions and experiences simultaneously in the story, yet in different contexts and circumstances, and thirty years apart. It created an exciting sense of contrast and camaraderie between the two women despite neither one knowing about the other.
It was so much fun to play across what is often considered the first and second Cold Wars, focus upon an impetuous spy and a consummate professional, contrast the military and diplomatic spheres, and explore the two generations and the cultural divide between them — and then bring it all together in the novel’s last moments.
Q: What’s next for you? Will you be going back to Miss Austen? Sticking with spies? Or trying something new?
A: I am going to delve into the spy world one more time before I decamp for new territory. My next novel, The Berlin Letters, will publish on March 5th, 2024, and it is the story of Luisa Voekler, a CIA cryptographer who discovers that her father is not only alive, but has been sending coded letters from behind the Berlin Wall for over twenty years. The action takes place during a single week in November 1989 as Luisa impetuously risks everything to travel to Berlin in an attempt to free her father from a Stasi jail. Readers will also get a glimpse, however, into a longer timeframe as Luisa’s father, Haris, will share his story from behind the Iron Curtain, starting on the day the Wall went up in 1961 to the day it fell, November 9, 1989.
I am terribly excited about this story. It has some unexpected elements of fun, alongside the danger and tension, that made the writing an extraordinary and dynamic experience. And I got to visit Berlin for six days — Wow!
A SHADOW IN MOSCOW by Katherine Reay
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.
Suspense Spy [Harper Muse, On Sale: June 13, 2023, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781400243037 / ]
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About Katherine Reay
Katherine Reay is a writer, wife, mom, continually rehabbing runner, compulsive vacuumist and a horrific navigator…
She graduated from Northwestern University and earned an MS in Marketing from Northwestern as well. She then worked in marketing and development before returning to graduate school for a Masters of Theological Studies. Moves to Texas, England, Ireland and Washington left that degree unfinished as Katherine spent her time unpacking, raising kids, volunteering, writing, and exploring new storylines and new cities.
The Reay family (with a great sense of permanency) now resides outside Chicago, and Katherine pursues writing with more focus. She writes character-driven stories and non-fiction that focuses upon examining the past and how it influences our present experiences.
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About Marie Bostwick
When not curled up with a good book, Marie Bostwick can usually be found in her office, trying to write one.
A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of eighteen uplifting works of historical and contemporary fiction, Marie’s books are beloved by readers across the globe.
Drawing on her lifelong love of quilting and her unshakable belief in the power of sisterhood, Marie’s popular Cobbled Court Quilt series has been embraced by quilters and non-sewers alike. Her standalone books have also found a passionate following among lovers of women’s fiction. Marie’s novel, The Second Sister” was adapted into the 2018 Hallmark Hall of Fame feature film “Christmas Everlasting”, starring Patti LaBelle. Marie’s most recent novel, Hope on the Inside, was published in March 2019 and was chosen as a Reader’s Digest “Select Editions” book.
Marie’s latest endeavor is Fiercely Marie, a lifestyle blog that encourages women to live every minute and love every moment. She is currently working on her next novel, “The Restoration of Celia Fairchild”, which will be published by William Morrow in the spring of 2021.
Marie lives in Washington state with her husband and a beautiful but moderately spoiled Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
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