Agent Sonya

More about the book

The international bestselling author reveals one of the last great untold spy stories of the twentieth century—the woman hidden in plain sight who set the stage for the Cold War. In the quiet English village of Great Rollright in 1942, Ursula Burton appeared as a thin, elegant woman with three children and a machinist husband named Len. Friendly yet reserved, her neighbors knew little of her true identity. Unknown to them, Burton was a dedicated communist, a Soviet Colonel, and a seasoned spy with a history of operations in China, Poland, and Switzerland. They were unaware that Len was also a Soviet spy, or that she maintained a powerful radio transmitter connected to Moscow in their outhouse. In her last mission, Burton infiltrated communist spies into a top-secret American operation parachuting anti-Nazi agents into the Third Reich. Most remarkably, when she pedaled away on her bike, she was heading to meet Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear physicist involved in Britain’s atomic weapons program. Together, they gathered vital scientific secrets for the Soviet Union. Hunted by various powers, including MI5, MI6, and the FBI, Burton evaded capture and survived the brutal Soviet purges. Her story reflects the ideological clash of the twentieth century and sheds new light on contemporary spy battles. With access to her intelligence files, the author presents a thrilling secret history of a landmark agent who altered the course of the Cold W