Julia was just a kid in Russia when her mother abandoned her. Growing up in the orphanage was a hard life and it scarred Julia.
When she got a little older, Julia was recruited by the SPB, Russian intelligence. Trained and educated, she was sent to California with the instructions to worm her way into the tech world of Silicone Valley. And she succeeds spectacularly, becoming the number two leader at Tangerine, a giant influential tech company. So now she is rich and famous, newly married and newly pregnant. But here comes Leo, her "uncle," actually her Russian handler and he wants more from her. She warns Leo that what he wants her to do could end in her exposure. But he insists. And so she does it and it results in the murder of a man by the SBP.
Just as Julia predicted, someone noticed her searches and started looking into it. Alice is a lower level tech at Tangerine and pretty powerless but discovers a lot of things that could spell trouble for Tangerine and for Julia and Peter, the number one guy at Tangerine.
Julia knows if she crosses the SBP, it would result in not only her death, but in the death of her husband and even of her newborn baby. But Julia also knows she does not want to ruin her comfy California life of privilege and power and wealth. Going back to Russia is not in her plans. So when the FBI comes calling, what else can she do but cooperate?
It took awhile for me to get into this story. It's certainly a slow mover, as we have to read about all the intimate details of Julia's and later Alice's lives. Neither Julia or Alice are particularly appealing characters. Julia is arrogant and phony and Alice is just pathetic. I did warm to the story a bit more as I got further into it and eventually enjoyed it quite a bit. And I did enjoy the ending.
Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.
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