Our Woman in Moscow

I enjoyed this book by Beatriz Williams more than some others I have read lately.  I like good historical fiction and this book is centered on the period of the Cold War (1952) with some flashbacks to the summer of 1940 in Rome just as war was engulfing Europe and to 1948 in Great Britain. Ruth and Iris Macallister are twin sisters but couldn't be more different. Ruth is confident and brash, Iris is timid and unassuming. They go for an extended stay in Rome, where their brother is working at the American embassy. When a colleague of their brother's, who  also  works at the embassy, starts paying attention to Iris, she is swept off her feet; Ruth disapproves of the relationship. As the war draws closer, Ruth returns to America, but Iris stays behind with her lover, Sasha Digby. Ruth and Iris fall out of touch. Years later, Iris, Sasha and their children disappear from London and the suspicion is that they have defected to Russia. Readers have known all along that Sasha was passing information along to the Communists. After over 12 years of no contact, Ruth receives a postcard from Iris asking Ruth to come to Moscow to support Iris during a difficult pregnancy and, of course, Ruth will still do anything to help her sister. Then Ruth is contacted by an FBI agent, Sumner Fox, who wants to join her --ostensibly as her husband--to try and get the Digbys out of Russia; an agent from the KGB is equally determined to see that doesn't happen. Quite a good thriller and I didn't see the ending coming. Reviews available from Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, and a lengthier review in The Star Tribune.