Rosalie Knecht: Who is Vera Kelly?

Who is Vera Kelly? was one of the Summer of Spies books that I have been most anticipating. It’s the story of Vera Kelly (yes, really….) told from two different points of view:

In one we have Vera posing as a student of Spanish in Argentina in the mid-60s but secretly spying on the political situation in the country. As the government is over-thrown, Vera’s routes of escape are cut off and she needs to find an alternative way to leave the country.

The other point of view shows Vera’s back-story and how she ended up being a spy.

It is not the best spy story I have ever read, but I appreciated that the author chose to tell the story from the point of view of a character that wasn’t a trigger-happy, alcoholic guy, and the Vera allowed us to see a character with some silliness, some depth, and a lot of defensive responses to the hostile environments that she’s in – and these aren’t necessarily at their worst while she’s on her mission in Argentina!

Overall, tho, I enjoyed the elements of historical fiction and the Argentinian setting much more than the espionage plot.