Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Minnie Gray is an ordinary young woman.She is also a spy for the British government.
It all began in the summer of 1928...
Minnie is supposed to find a nice man, get married and have children. The problem is it doesn’t appeal to her at all. She is working as a secretary, but longs to make a difference.
Then, one day, she gets her chance. She is recruited by the British government as a spy. Under strict instructions not to tell anyone, not even her family, she moves to London and begins her mission – to infiltrate the Communist movement.
She soon gains the trust of important leaders. But as she grows more and more entangled in the workings of the movement, her job becomes increasingly dangerous. Leading a double life is starting to take its toll on her relationships and, feeling more isolated than ever, she starts to wonder how this is all going to end. The Russians are notorious for ruthlessly disposing of people given the slightest suspicion.
What if they find out?
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK via NetGalley for my copy of A Beautiful Spy to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Life for Minnie Gray changed the day her mother Betty made her attend a garden party near her home in Edgbaston. For it was there she met Dolly Pyle who works for the government ministries. Dolly offers to pass on her name to the relevant people as she feels she would be good and useful. Minnie can’t believe her luck as she finds her life has begun to feel stuck. Working as a typist at the Automobile Association, nothing ever changes and her work offers no path of progress. Life should be opening out for her instead it remains staid and boring. Much times passes and in November of 1931 she receives a letter asking her to attend a house in London regrading a vacancy she had expressed an interest in.
To Minnie that party in 1928 seems so long ago, like the meeting with Dolly never occurred, but as she travels to London and meets with Max who works for British Intelligence, the changes she wanted so desperately to occur in her life are about to take place. By the time she becomes deeply involved in something so secretive that even her family have no idea what she is involved with I sensed Minnie was deeply questioning whether she wanted these changes to occur and perhaps did she long for the quiet old life of her previous existence. So sets in motion a life of spying hence the title A Beautiful Spy which also connects to a song sung in the book. I loved this connection to the title and an engrossing read ensued.
I flew through this book as I found the subject matter fascinating, intense and intriguing. I had never read anything about British spying activities in the years prior to the war and I found Minnie to be a complex yet brave character who navigates such a dangerous path with determination and grit. Yet she is not always strong and on the ball and before long she finds herself ingratiated so deep into a section of society perhaps she would rather not know much about. Her character is tested time and time again, particularly mentally, and this does begin to affect her. I was glad to see that she did struggle that it wasn’t all plain sailing and that the people around eventually realised she needed help. Her emotions, viewpoints and her sense of self were tested time and time again. She wrestles with her conscience an awful lot as she is forced to put on a front and this is so hard to maintain 24/7 but she agreed to something dangerous which would ultimately lead to her helping her country. She knows she can’t back out but how can she go on the more she discovers just exactly what is going on?
Minnie’s task is to go undercover and find out/report about those people who are members of the British Communist Party who have unnerving close ties to the Soviet Union. These extremists hold dangerous ideals which they put above loyalty to King and country. Max becomes her mentor, confidante and ally although as time progresses there are periods where Minnie feels abandoned and used as if she is but a small pawn in a much bigger game. I think she wanted to have Max as a father figure in her life given her experiences with her own father until his death. When this wasn’t always forthcoming and long periods without communication or progress ensued she began to think why am I bothering with this? Is everything I am doing just pointless? She questions whether what she is doing is right or is it just placing her in a position of stress and unnecessary danger?
These people she becomes ingrained with are dealing in illicit activities and she finds her world turned upside down whilst all the time she has to maintain a front and pretence and hope that no one will suspect that really she is keeping track of all of their movements, correspondence, meetings and plans. What a burden for her to shoulder, appearing to have a normal existence but all the time living in a parallel secret one. Minnie does all this because she wants to prove to all those that under rated her that she is worthwhile and can step outside the box of convention constructed around women at the time. That she can be strong, cautious and make solid judgements whilst maintaining a distance and therefore be able to infiltrate Communist groups and societies gaining crucial information. Life has finally given her the purpose she craves and she is doing something exacting and important but leading a double life is gruelling but will all the lies, pretence and watching her back prove just too much for one person to shoulder?
As Minnie’s work intensifies she becomes more burdened and terrified of discovery. On one hand you feel empathy for her but on the other you do think well you asked for something to change and spice up your life so to speak so now you have just go on and deal with it. When an old friend Raymond makes a reappearance in her life this is where she questions whether she should just stop what she is doing and follow her heart? But when one commits to working for British Intelligence there is no easy get out of jail free card and she can’t just drop everything.
I think this is the point where Minnie struggled and asks herself how can she want a thing yet resent it at the same time? Especially as in the last quarter things really became heightened and her activities ramped up even more. She was involved in something so complex and threatening that one wrong step, one misplaced word and her world would come crashing down and would be extremely difficult to build back up again. I genuinely feared for her and the eventual outcome of the book.
The last number of books I have read by Rachel Hore were good but they didn’t make the impact I felt from her earlier novels. At times I found them hard to get through and keep reading but here the story of Minnie, in my mind, is a triumphant return to form for the author with a solid, interesting storyline with lots of historical detail very well researched and written. The characters were complex, secretive and flawed but never dull and I found once I started reading this book it became impossible to put down. Before I knew it I was nearing the final chapters, yet I felt like I had only begun and I haven’t felt this way about the author’s most recent books.
I was easily transported to the fictional world of the characters but I was surprised to read at the end that it was inspired by the real life Olga Gray. This made me want to read more about this woman and what she was involved in and it’s not often these days that I want to do that after reading books. Sometimes you read a book, enjoy it at the time and then when finished park it, forget about it and move on to your next read but here Rachel Hore has written an inspiring story that awakened my mind to a different time in the world that I want to know even more about. A Beautiful Spy is an excellent read packed full of adventure, well developed characters and a riveting storyline. It’s well worth a read.
Thanks so much Emma and Sharon x
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