Lara Prescott’s The Secrets We Kept (Knopf, $26.95) is a big hit, rating reviews in Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Times. The main character, Irina, is the daughter of Russian immigrants who wins a typing contest and therefore a job at a Federal Agency in Washington, even though she is the poorest typist of the four applicants.
The government agency turns out to be the CIA. And the CIA is more interested in Irina’s ability to speak Russian than in her typing. Set in the 1950’s, the story bounces from Irina’s point of view to other typists and then to Irina’s second trainer, Sally. Irina’s first secret ops trainer is a great guy, who unfortunately falls for Irina and wants to marry her. His fate is undeserved.
In the meantime, Boris Pasternak has written Doctor Zhivago but can’t publish it in the Soviet Union. Merely because she typed it, his mistress, Olga, is sent to the Gulag for five years of hard labor. Olga’s story is by far the most interesting of the various subplots, which meld together to the eventual publication of Zhivago, first in Italy and then across the world. The Russians refuse to let Pasternack to receive the Nobel Prize in literature for Zhivago.
Irina and Sally become more than friends which eventually leads to problems within the agency and of course much gossiping I the typing pool. There’s no real cloak and dagger excitement for a spy novel, so don’t expect a page-turner. But the characters are interesting, and the writing is solid. Secrets is also a great time travel back to the cold war at its height and the Soviet Union at its worst.
Sometimes the plot details are fuzzy. I never figured out what happened to Sally when she is confronted by a possible CIA mole in a closet, why two guys who were friends suddenly duke it out, or what exactly she does after she leaves the Agency.
Overall, I would give The Secrets We Kept a B+, certainly an excellent effort for a first novel.
Steve E Clark as seen in the New York Times is Author of Justice Is for the Lonely and Justice Is for the Deserving, Kristen Kerry Novels Of Suspense. Steve is a 2017 NY Big Book Award winner and a 2018 Independent Book Awards recipient. You can purchase his books via https://steveclarkauthor.com/buy-the-book/ or request it at your local book store. Want to know more about Steve Clark, read more reviews or speak directly with Steve? Learn more about Steve at SteveClarkAuthor.com
Recent Comments