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Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!
This week’s pick is one of my favorite spy thriller books of recent years, Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht!
Content warning: homophobia, but I don’t recall anything else!
Vera Kelly is a bit of an enigma. In her mid-twenties, she’s working for the CIA in Buenos Aires in the 1960s, and the political climate is tense. But her job is relatively mellow–she passes time undercover as a student, tries to befriend the more radical student groups, and transcribes secretly tapped telephone conversations. But then a political coup throws the city in chaos and the CIA withdraws from the country without extracting her. Vera’s cover is blown and she’s left without a way home, with enemies closing in on all sides.
There are so many reasons why I love this book. First off, Vera is queer! Her story is a dual timeline narrative, alternating between her time in Argentina and her young adulthood years, starting with when her mother catches her acting a bit too amorous with her high school best friend. This ensuing fallout definitely shapes Vera’s worldview, and sets her on a long path to the CIA. Which brings me to setting–I love that this is a spy story set in the latter half of the twentieth century that isn’t about how bad the Soviets are. Yes, the Cold War had a huge impact on politics and culture, especially in the ’60s, but let’s not forget that the CIA was meddling in South America an awful lot, and the U.S. was not always the good guy there.
And on that note–this is a spy story that’s a little quirky. It doesn’t gloss over the boring, mundane aspects of spy work, nor does it romanticize the danger and action. Vera is no queer lady Jason Bourne (although if anyone wants to write me that story, PLEASE), but she is a smart, unconventional, determined heroine who is trying to survive the best she can. She’s not mercenary, nor is she a committed patriot–which makes sense, considering that she knows she’d be fired if her handlers knew about her sexuality. Because of who she is, Vera has the unique perspective of being critical and grateful to the CIA at the same time.
This is the perfect pick for people who can’t handle or don’t want to read a lot of violence or sexual assault, because this book doesn’t get very dark. There are some really great action moments, some heartbreaking scenes in Vera’s past, but underneath it all, a dry sense of humor that I couldn’t get enough of!
Bonus: The sequel, Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery just came out last month! It’s about what Vera does after the events of this book, and it’s already one of my favorite books of 2020! All my fingers crossed that Rosale Knecht will write more Vera books!
Happy reading!
Tirzah
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