From the Publisher
I think Beatriz Williams is writing the best historical fiction out there. It’s lush with period detail but feels immediate.” — Elin Hilderbrand
“A thrilling novel of spying, duplicity and bad decisions during the heart of the Cold War…the plot races into white-knuckle territory.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Williams has a sure hand in this deceptively quiet novel, told from the perspective of three different women. She expertly shifts between family drama and a suspenseful espionage plot, and makes every word and note count." — Library Journal (starred review)
"Superb...Williams has created her own vivid plot wound around a true story.” — Seattle Times
"Fans will be riveted by the complex family relationships and the intriguing portrayal of espionage." — Publishers Weekly
"A captivating Cold War page-turner." — Real Simple
“This is Williams at the top of her game." — Historical Novel Society
“Williams imagines the adventures of a world-famous aviator, who disappears in 1937 during a solo, around-the-world flight, in this engaging tale of courage, intrigue, and adventure…Williams builds irresistible tension with the alternating timelines as the fate of Irene and Sam unfolds with shrewd twists and turns that build to an unexpected jolt. Williams’s fans will devour this meaty tale." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Her Last Flight
“Beatriz Williams deftly fits together the characters, stories, and themes that the narrative services into a cohesive whole. The pieces all align perfectly, and she has shaped them together brilliantly. Her Last Flight is a gem of a book.” — New York Journal of Books on Her Last Flight
“Inventive...What if Amelia Earhart had not only survived her last flight, but found true romance.” — Kirkus Reviews on Her Last Flight
“Williams captivates…Historical fiction fans will be riveted.” — Publishers Weekly
Kate Quinn
The Golden Houris pure golden delight Beatriz Williams is at the top of her game.”
Historical Novel Society
This is Williams at the top of her game."
New York Journal of Books on Her Last Flight
Beatriz Williams deftly fits together the characters, stories, and themes that the narrative services into a cohesive whole. The pieces all align perfectly, and she has shaped them together brilliantly. Her Last Flight is a gem of a book.
Elin Hilderbrand
I think Beatriz Williams is writing the best historical fiction out there. It’s lush with period detail but feels immediate.”
null New York Journal of Books on Her Last Flight
Beatriz Williams deftly fits together the characters, stories, and themes that the narrative services into a cohesive whole. The pieces all align perfectly, and she has shaped them together brilliantly. Her Last Flight is a gem of a book.
Kirkus Reviews
2021-01-27
Twin sisters find themselves caught up in a Russian spy ring at the height of the Cold War.
In 1952, Ruth Macallister, a former fashion model and the power behind the throne at a Manhattan modeling agency, receives a postcard from her twin sister, Iris Digby—sent from Moscow. When FBI man and former Yale fullback Sumner Fox comes sniffing around, Ruth at first withholds this information, but later the two will team up, pretending to be newlyweds, to go to Moscow with the intent of extracting Iris from the clutches of the Stalin regime. Or at least that’s Ruth’s intent—Sumner’s mixed motives are a source of more confusion than intrigue. The 1952 sections, narrated by Ruth, alternate with Iris’ story, set in 1948 Great Britain, detailing how her marriage is foundering. She always knew her husband, Sasha Digby, was a spy for the Russians, a mole embedded in the U.S. diplomatic corps. Lately, however, his drunkenness appears to have rendered him all but useless to his handlers. Iris met Sasha during the sisters’ prewar Roman holiday in 1940 and, infatuated, married him in haste. Sasha’s frequent all-night benders have definitely debloomed the rose. The 1948 narrative slows down the present action without really adding much crucial insight into how, or why, Sasha and Iris end up defecting, with their children, to Moscow or even why, after his poor performance, Moscow would want him. Making occasional appearances in the 1952 timeline is Lyudmila Ivanova, a tough-as-nails KGB operative and a single mother due to her informing on her husband, who was sent to the gulag. He’s not the only family member she’s turned in. Lyudmila has been assigned to monitor expat defectors like Sasha. Iris is the most fully developed and sympathetic character here. Ruth is another iteration of the wisecracking dame who has appeared in so many Williams novels, and Lyudmila seems patterned after Greta Garbo in Ninotchka, except that this doctrinaire minion of Stalin wouldn’t be caught dead in a rom-com.
A cumbersome plot weighs down this would-be spy thriller.
