Brenda's Bookshelf

What do you need to know about someone in order to trust them? What if they are the perfect father, or perfect husband who supports your career and wants help you succeed? What would tip the balance from trust to suspicion or betrayal?

These are the questions Vivian Miller, an analyst in the Russia group at the CIA must answer when a new file of sensitive data from a reliable source lands on her desk. In the file is a list embedded sleeper Russian agents located in the US. As she scrolls through the information she sees that one of the pictures is of her husband! He has a different name, but the picture is definitely him. Now what should she do?

Her husband works from home and does most of the childcare. He has supported her when her job gets horrendously busy and their children love their father. Should she report him and destroy their family? What if this information isn’t true? What is she going to do?

As I read this book I kept asking myself, what would I do in this situation? The horror of having to decide what to do and then being responsible if you made the wrong choice-tearing your family apart, ruining everyone’s life or allowing a Russian spy to live in your own home and learn national security information. It would be an awfully hard to make any decision, but you would have to make it just like Vivian did and then try to live with the consequences. You will have to read and find out what she decided to do, but needless to say the consequences of her choice are enormous!

Cleveland is very adept at getting to the emotions that drive Vivian and her choices. The other characters, her husband, Vivian’s co-workers and her parents who make a short cameo appearance are all very believable and add depth to the story line. I hope there is a follow up book that gives a sense of what happens next!

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

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

Book Study Worthy? Yes!

Read in e-library format

This is a fascinating novel about real life events that occurred when Boris Pasternak wrote his  famous novel, Dr. Zhivago. Set in the early 1950’s this novel describes the dramatic efforts of the publishing world and the newly created Central Intelligence Agency to get a copy of Pasternak’s manuscript which had been banned by Russian authorities as being anti-communist and treasonous.

The novel uses several different characters to tell this story: Irina, a Russian-American who works in the typing pool at the CIA and is tasked with smuggling the manuscript out of Russia, her mentor and friend, Sally Forrester who worked as a spy during the war and helps Irina learn how to use charm and deflection to do what needs to be done. Meanwhile in Russia we follow the real life  story of Olga Ivinskaya, Boris Pasternak’s mistress. Boris based the love story of Yuri and Lara in Dr. Zhivago on his relationship with Olga who was both his lover and his muse.

Weaving both fact and fiction, Prescott has written a fascinating book about the the early days of the CIA, the human cost for living the life of a spy and the terrible consequences that Pasternak and Olga endured for writing a legendary novel that has touched millions of people.

I thoroughly enjoyed this first novel by Prescott and hope that we will hear from her again soon!

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

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

Book Study Worthy? Yes

Read in e-library format.