Journal Entry 1 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Monday, April 12, 2010

Someone is trying to kill Sally Gilmartin. It is the summer of 1976, and the only person she can trust is her daughter, Ruth, a young single mother struggling with her own demons. Now Sally must tell her daughter the truth: She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited for the British Secret Service in 1939. Soon Ruth is drawn deeper into the astonishing events of her mother’s past, including her work in New York City manipulating the press in order to shift public sentiment toward U.S. involvement in Second World War and her dangerous love affair with another spy. Ruth also discovers that her mother has one final assignment. This time, though, Eva can’t do it alone—she needs Ruth’s help. Full of tension and drama, emotion and history, this is storytelling at its finest.

Journal Entry 2 by seethroughfaith from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Monday, May 24, 2010

must have read the opening chapter about a dozen times ... and it stops on a cliff hanger too - only I kept forgetting where I put the book or picked up another

now finally I've got into this (on p 107 now) ... like the way there are backflashes to Eva's earlier life ... and then we are again in the present with her daughter who is puzzling out just who her mother really is or rather was

ETA 25th May 2010
The BC site changed last night and I haven't yet worked out how to add a new JE so adding to this one!
This was a really good read. I enjoyed the way the author gave details of how spies are/were trained and in particular their techniques for avoiding being shadowed. Eva's story was an interesting one and I enjoyed how the plot flitted from present to past.

What I was not so sure of was WHY Eva needed her daughter to confront her past. Surely she could have found out the information herself and phoned /made the appointment? The ending was a suprise to me (though it probably could have been guessed)

What made the book of particular interest to me was the mention of electra house in London. Not only did my parents both work there (though not as spies) but I too worked there (in the canteen and on the coffee /tea trolley) for several summers.

a good read as I said, and I'd probably read another book by the author