Smack dab in Spain, Britain, and Soviet Russia in the height of Stalin's purge finds Temerity West, a polyglot spying for London, and Kostya Nikto, a NKVD officer. What should be predator and prey, enemy to enemy, becomes something so much more when Kostya spares Temeritys life a handful of times. The novel follows a man and a woman with key differences that get pulled together by circumstance, and, potentially, destiny.

This novel plays with the themes of choice, duty, and what makes an evil, evil. The constant doubt of your morals and self imposing a question of “what would I do?” makes it a novel full of complicated choices.

The descriptions used are vibrant and portray any emotion vividly, from lust to grief. Nothing is safe, and dialogue sets a fear in you lest the wrong person overhear. A simple whisper of discontentment can land someone on charges if their neighbor hears, and the walls are always listening.

I loved this novel. It is moderately challenging to read, especially if you can’t give it a majority of your focus, but once I got into it I read 400 pages in two days after taking a week for 40 pages. Being set in Soviet Russia, with some characters needing to change their names for the purpose of spying, espionage, or safety, there are truly 2-4 names used for the majority of the characters, so one needs to retain any variation of a name in order to stay on track.