Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe, Simon & Schuster

“A woman with young children moves in a ring of chaos,” says Katharina Edgeworth. Mother of two young sons, she yearns for her job as an interpreter at the UN. Husband Tom, chief of paediatric surgery at a New York hospital, works late nights. Marriage and kids were not in Rini’s plans. She was shooting for the stars; a diplomat, proud that the UN “places no restrictions on eligibility for men or women to participate”. This is an intelligent, elegant piece of writing. Tanabe sets her story in an exciting era; 1950s McCarthyism with hearings to expose communist traitors. Rini is lonely, frustrated, drinks too much gin. When the FBI asks her to hook up with an ex-lover who is a Soviet informant, she thinks, “Why should I be a simple housewife?” Whip smart, she gets the FBI to fake a medical bill to prove to Tom she was at the doctor when at a communist party meeting.