Novelist Katherine Reay will promote her new book “The Undercover Bookshop” with a stop in Spartanburg.
Reay found initial inspiration for the book while researching two of her other novels about Cold War spies, and she learned about Ursula Kuczynski Beurton, a Soviet Union spy based in the United Kingdom.
During the winter of 1950, Gemma Brown moves to Great Rollright, a small village in the English Cotswolds, and sets out to create an idyllic life like the one she’s read about in her favorite mystery novels. But fitting in is difficult as Gemma is more adept at solving mysteries and setting up the village’s first bookstore than she is at baking cakes or grasping social niceties.
As the story progresses, Gemma finds a friend in Peggy, a young woman recently moved to town, and Ursula Beurton, who is not only the village’s best baker but an enigmatic figure who sparks controversy in the small-town gossip network. However, the more time Gemma spends with Ursula, the more she wonders if the baker is a spy.
“She (Ursula) came onto my radar during the research for those books and I set her aside,” said Reay. “It wasn’t until Gemma Brown came to mind and the (concept) of the classic British mystery novel in my imagination fell in place (before) Ursula came to surface again as a little bit the foil. I knew about her, but I didn’t know she had a story until all of the other bits came into play.”
Once Reay had Gemma and Ursula in mind, she set out to research for her book, which included reading Ben Macintyre’s “Agent Sonya: The Spy Next Door” and classic British spy novels printed prior to 1949, as well as taking research trips to the locations she used in her novel.
“There are questions about what happened after she (Ursula) left England on Feb. 27, 1950,” Reay said. “There are a few professors out of the U.K. who will say, ‘She actually was a double agent for MI6.’ I don’t know if that’s true (because) MI6 hasn’t opened their files. I had to do a ton of research on what really was known and what was questionable.”
Reay will participate in Hub City Books’ Coffee with Author on Oct. 7 at the Masonic Temple at 186 W. Main St. in Spartanburg, starting at 10 a.m. For more information, visit hubcity.org.
