RESTLESS by William Boyd

Sally Gilmartin, a widow living in the Cotswalds, reveals to her daughter that she has been living a lie. Her real name is Eva Delctorskay and she worked for the secret service as a highly trained spy during World War II. She used safe houses, had access to fake passport and her modus operandi was to trust no one.

Thirty years later, Sally believes that someone is trying to kill her. She decides to reveal her identity to her daughter in order to get help.

Ruth, the daughter, a single parent mother of a little girl, is astonished as she is drawn into the details of her mothers previous life. She simply had no idea. Ruth's uneventful life suddenly becomes more dangerous as she attempts to help her mother.

Much of the book is given over to Sally's life as a spy. It is a wonderful recreation of that world, an enthralling story of espionage: the distrust, the paranoia and the politics of war. It's a marvelous read.