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A Tribute to my Mother
The Secretary follows a British woman working for M16 who goes undercover in the British embassy in Moscow, where she starts an affair with a journalist also undercover while searching for a possible traitor. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Lois Vale is a fictionalised version of my late mother, Joy, and I wrote the novel as a tribute to her. My parents met in Moscow at the height of the Cold War, and my sister and I grew up with tales of their romance tailed by the KGB and how they would dig listening devices out of apartment walls. Her 1958 diary was a wonderful find; it was clear she had deliberately left it for us. In her 80s, she had finally admitted to me that she had worked for MI6, though I had long had my suspicions. The diary made sense of the stories she had shared and put them in context. She actually did have a German journalist boyfriend for a while in Moscow, and always spoke fondly of him. I based the structure of the novel broadly on events in the diary, from her initial train journey from Helsinki to Moscow on the night express, to her trips to Vienna and the Black Sea. Though the spy story in the novel is complete fiction, it is rooted in contemporaneous historical fact.
The characters in The Secretary are very complex. What is your process for creating such in-depth characters?
I tried to be as truthful as possible. I always had a lovely relationship with my mother and as I grew up we became close friends and confidantes. I knew, admired – wished I had – her qualities. Writing her character was a question of doing her justice. She was interesting to be with, always elegantly self-effacing and calm, with flashes of sharp humour, and conversations with her were memorable. I drew on years of remembered conversations to build the characters around her; though almost all of them are entirely imaginary, some spring from her observations of people she mixed with in Moscow and subsequently in embassies across the world, and others come from my own reading, fiction and non-fiction, about that era.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The unsung and underestimated role of women in intelligence in the 1950s is a crucial aspect of the novel. Also the question of loyalty and betrayal: how loyalty may not be reciprocated, and how there might even be a moral component of betrayal.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’m working on the third novel in the fun French cozy mystery series I write with my husband Rob under the name Serena Kent. Death in Provence and Death in Avignon came out in 2018 and 2019, so this next episode has been a long time coming, interrupted by my determination to bring The Secretary to fruition. After all the delays, I don’t dare promise imminent publication!
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A tense Cold War spy story told from the perspective of a bright, young, working-class woman recruited to MI6 at a time when men were in charge of making history and women were expendable.
The Secretary
Deborah Lawrenson’s The Secretary is a richly layered spy novel set against the bleak yet fascinating backdrop of Cold War Moscow in the late 1950s. The story centers around Lois Vale, a British woman sent under deep cover to the British embassy in Moscow. By all outward appearances, she is a secretary, but beneath the surface lies a complex and dangerous mission to uncover a possible traitor within the embassy. Through diary entries, vivid scenes, and psychological depth, Lawrenson paints a tense world where truth is elusive, betrayal is always near, and even the most personal thoughts can become weapons.
From the very first page, I was pulled in. The writing has a graceful rhythm. It’s elegant without being flowery, sharp without being cruel. Lawrenson manages to say so much with so little. I found myself re-reading lines not because they were hard to follow, but because they hit a nerve. Her descriptions of Moscow are like watching a black-and-white film—gritty, cold, and oddly beautiful. What really stuck with me, though, was the emotional weight. Lois isn’t a James Bond figure. She’s real. She’s scared. She second-guesses herself. And I believed her every step of the way.
The book builds slowly, piece by piece. The tension comes from little things like a locked drawer, a look held too long, a diary that might be read. At times, I wanted more plot, more fireworks, but I came to appreciate the quiet dread more than the expected explosions. The sense of being watched, of being alone in a room full of people—it’s handled so well it gave me chills. There’s also a feminist undertone I didn’t expect. Lois is underestimated, even dismissed, but she holds more power than most of the men around her. That felt deeply satisfying.
I’d recommend The Secretary to anyone who loves Cold War fiction, but especially to readers who enjoy slower, more introspective spy stories. This isn’t an action-packed thriller. It’s a character study wrapped in espionage. If you liked Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but wished it had more emotional depth, or if you ever wondered what it would be like to spy without backup, this is your book. I closed it feeling both chilled and strangely moved.
Pages: 305 | ASIN : B0DSWG8J3C
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