Алма Катсу - Red Widow

She looks at Richard and Theresa, still observing each other at arm’s length. This is what it can do to you: make you doubt the very ground beneath your feet.

Then, Richard stirs.

He stretches out his arm to Theresa.

She tumbles into him, pressing her face to his chest. His right arm wraps around her back, drawing her closer. They cling to each as tightly as possible.

Lyndsey edges closer to the family as they make their way to the ambulance. Richard is about to climb into the back when Theresa waves her over. Her eyes glisten with tears as she takes Lyndsey’s arm and pulls her into their circle.

“Richard, I want you to meet Lyndsey Duncan. We owe her so much… We owe her everything. If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t be here today.”

He squints through his eyeglasses. She can tell he is searching his memory, perhaps remembering something about her face. Lyndsey is shocked to see how he’s aged. He could easily be fifteen years older. His clothes hang off his lean frame. His face is creased with wrinkles, the skin rough, as though he’s been left in bad weather for a long time. There seems to be an involuntary tremor in his hands—but Brian clings to them nonetheless.

But there’s the same intelligent twinkle in his eyes that she remembers from her earliest days in Russia Division. Despite what they did to him in prison, they didn’t manage to destroy the man. To break his spirit.

She’s glad to see, after everything he has been through, that sometimes the best endures.

“Hello, Richard. It’s good to see you.” She extends her hand. “Welcome home.”

For those who know of me through my novels, it may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that before I started writing, I had a long career in intelligence, which I drew on to write Red Widow . I always wanted to write a spy novel because I felt there were things about working in this field that people didn’t understand, especially if what they did know came from popular movies, TV shows, and books. I am grateful for my career: as I’ve told many people, through it, I was able to do many things I would otherwise never have experienced. But it has its dark side, too, and it’s that trade-off and the personal toll it can take that I wanted to capture in Red Widow .

I can’t reveal the names of all the colleagues who helped, befriended, and challenged me over the years but know that I think of you and appreciate your kindnesses. I would like to drop the first names of a few special friends here (you know who you are): Andrea and David; Bev; Charlotte; Jen; Jan; Jay; Kathy; Peter, Simona, Jim, Gary, and everyone at the Center. Also, thank you to the patient folks in the Pre-Publication Review office and a special thanks to Larry P. for letting me base a character on him.

Thanks also to John Nason for his help understanding what happens when a foreign national is arrested by the FBI for spying. Thanks, too, to former colleague and friend Ed Mickolus for the introduction to John.

There would be no Red Widow without my editor at Putnam, Sally Kim. I had pretty much given up on writing a spy novel and I didn’t take it up again until she challenged me to come up with an idea that eventually blossomed into this book. She went through countless revisions to get me to the version you hold in your hands. I am grateful for her vision and patience.

Deep thanks to the entire Putnam team for all their support and enthusiasm: president Ivan Held; director of marketing Ashley McClay; director of publicity Alexis Welby; the tireless Gabriella Mongelli; Katie Grinch, Sydney Cohen, Emily Mlynek, and Nishtha Patel.

Many thanks, as always, to my literary agents Richard Pine and Eliza Rothstein, who make everything better. Thanks, too, to my film agent Angela Cheng Caplan. And last but far from least, thank you to my husband for letting me disappear behind the door of my study to write, after thirty-four years of letting me disappear behind the gates and barbed-wire fences of work.

Alma Katsuis the award-winning author of five novels, most recently The Deep and The Hunger . Prior to the publication of her first novel, she had a thirty-five-year career as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA, as well as RAND, the global policy think tank. Katsu is a graduate of the master’s writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University. She lives outside of Washington, D.C., with her husband, where she is a consultant to government and private industry on future trends and analytic methods.

THE DEEP

THE HUNGER

THE DESCENT

THE RECKONING

THE TAKER

Copyright © 2021 by Alma Katsu

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Katsu, Alma, author.

Title: Red widow : a novel / Alma Katsu.

Description: New York : G. P. Putnam’s Sons, [2021] | Summary: “An exhilarating spy thriller about two women CIA agents who become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division—one that’s coming from inside the agency”—Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020049599 (print) | LCCN 2020049600 (ebook) | ISBN 9780525539414 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780525539438 (ebook)

Subjects: GSAFD: Suspense fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3611.A7886 R44 2021 (print) | LCC PS3611.A7886 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049599

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020049600

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design: Tal Goretsky

Cover image: (woman, composite) André Schuster & Aurelia Frey / plainpicture

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