An Unlikely Spy
A Novel
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
“A beguiling tale of espionage." -- Pam Jenoff, author of The Orphans Tale and The Lost Girls of Paris
A twisting, sophisticated World War II novel following a spy who goes undercover as a part of MI5—in chasing the secrets of others, how much will she lose of herself?
Evelyn Varley has always been ambitious and clever. As a girl, she earned a scholarship to a prestigious academy well above her parents’ means, gaining her a best friend from one of England’s wealthiest families. In 1939, with an Oxford degree in hand and war looming, Evelyn finds herself recruited into an elite MI5 counterintelligence unit.
A ruthless secret society seeks an alliance with Germany and, posing as a Nazi sympathizer, Evelyn must build a case to expose their treachery. But as she is drawn deeper into layers of duplicity—perhaps of her own making—some of those closest to her become embroiled in her investigation. With Evelyn’s loyalties placed under extraordinary pressure, she’ll face an impossible choice: save her country or the people who love her. Her decision echoes for years after the war, impacting everyone who thought they knew the real Evelyn Varley.
Beguiling and dark, An Unlikely Spy is a fascinating story of deception and sacrifice, based on the history of real people within the British intelligence community.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Class and ideologies collide in Starford's consummate debut, a clever combination of home front drama and espionage thriller. A chance encounter at a London hotel in 1948 with an old boarding school friend sends heroine Evelyn Varney's mind reeling back into her past. At school, the charismatic Julia Wharton-Wells, a little older and from a higher class background, takes Evelyn under her wing. Evelyn then goes on to study German at Oxford, and when the war begins, she finds work at the War Office. Her ability to speak German brings her to the attention of MI5, whose Bennett White recruits her for a dangerous assignment to infiltrate a group of homegrown Nazi sympathizers known as the Lion Society. Evelyn can't tell any of her friends of the role she's undertaken, which has repercussions when she finds out that Julia's lover might be a spy for Germany. Plot twist follows plot twist as Evelyn's assignment forces her to confront multiple layers of betrayal and deception. The author does an excellent job of recreating London before, during, and after the war, and in Evelyn has created a complex heroine whose sense of duty gets her in way over her head. With suspense worthy of Hitchcock and a moral reckoning straight out of Le Carré or Graham Greene, this is a winner.
