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Spy

a Novel
Feb 11, 2020Flynn7777 rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
This novel is very poorly written, as if for middle schoolers rather than adults. An author as successful as Steel should know "show don't tell," but this entire book was "told" rather than shown. With VERY few details. And the main character was completely unrealistic. She was perfect at everything she did, fluent in French and German despite never having been to France or Germany before the war, and she achieved--what? We're never shown. She wins two medals--for what? We're TOLD in a sentence or two that she went behind enemy lines several times, and she got information that her superiors were very grateful for. Really? What information? How did she do it? What were the missions like? SHOW US. After the war she and her husband lived in India for 4 years--what happened there? Who knows? She was supposedly still a spy, working for MI6, but she never did anything but go to parties. Ditto all the other countries they lived in. Even her time in Moscow was rushed through with no details. How can a spy's life be this boring?!? Maybe this book is a fluke and other novels by Steel are better than this one, but I won't be finding out because I won't be reading anything else by her. Sigh.