Kate Moore needs to quit her job. Her husband, Dexter, has just signed a very lucrative contract to be a financial consultant for a bank in Luxembourg, so not only does Kate need to quite her job she needs to pack up and move her family, too.  Kate has been toying with the idea of quitting her job so she could spend more time with her kids for quite awhile and the fact that they would be located in Europe, just like she and Dexter planned all those years ago, makes this move even more appealing.  But first she has to quit her job; not the job that Dexter thinks she has, writing position papers, but her real job as a field-agent for the CIA!

But life in Luxembourg is not quite what Kate expected. They have a wonderful apartment, the private school for their two boys is great and the ability to explore and travel is wonderful, but Dexter is extremely busy, and the day to day routines of making lunch, arranging play dates, and the social interactions with the other mothers are all a bit mind numbing. If she is honest with her self, she misses the action of her life with the CIA, and the sense that what she was doing “mattered.”  Kate also thought that a life free from the burden of keeping secrets would be easier, but the secrets of her past are still there, and now she worries that they might trip her up, exposing her family to retaliation without the benefit of the CIA’s protection.

Then a new couple shows up in Luxembourg, usually a cause for celebration among the stagnant expat community, but Kate senses something “off” about them.  She wants to communicate her concerns to Dexter but he is never home and when he is, he seems preoccupied and withdrawn.  All Kate’s instincts, honed in the field, tell her that something is not right, but she can’t quite figure it out, until it is almost too late.

Oscar Wilde said, “The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties,” and Pavone has created a  case study of such a marriage.  There are secrets kept to protect, secrets kept to avoid long explanations, and secrets kept in order to keep promises made long ago. All are secrets kept for the very best of intentions, but when there are too many they distort the reality of the relationship and their life.

Pavone does a great job in pacing and sustaining the tension and I can see why he was awarded numerous awards, including the Edgar Award for this first novel.  He has also created a strong female lead character in Kate, which is unusual for the spy/thriller genre and her wrestling with the dual pulls of family and career seem both familiar and real.  Although at times overly descriptive, I found this book to be a welcome, fun and satisfying read and look forward to reading his next book, The Accident.

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Sharon, Marian, Lauren and Ken

Book Study Worthy? yes

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