Joyce Wayne – Last Night of the World
And now for something completely different. A spy story that is not set in Berlin, DC, London or Moscow but in Ottawa, Canada of all places. On Episode 38 of the Spybrary Spy Podcast author Joyce Wayne reveals more about her novel based on true events and real people ‘Last Night of the World‘.
Spy Book Description
‘On a hot Ottawa night in August 1945, Soviet agent Freda Linton’s world is about to fall apart. She’s spent the war infiltrating the highest levels of the Canadian government as an undercover operative for the fledging Canadian Communist Party and for Moscow’s military police. As the global conflict nears its conclusion, her Soviet embassy handler and darling of the diplomatic scene Nikolai Zabotin sends her to retrieve atomic secrets from the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories. When Freda discovers that Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko plans to turn over top secret files to the RCMP that will expose Freda and the others in her spy ring, she is faced with an impossible decision and must determine who is on her side. Should she risk everything to smuggle out nuclear secrets that will kick off the Cold War? Joyce Wayne’s Last Night of the World brings a high-energy creativeness and emotional tension to a story that is rooted in a generation’s defining incident.”
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Links and Resources mentioned on this episode of the Spybrary Spy Podcast
The Last Night of the World – Joyce Wayne
How the Cold War Began – Amy Knight
The Fall of a Titan – Igor Gouzenko
The Great Courses – Espionage and Covert Operations
Red Joan – Jennie Rooney
Inspired by the true story of Melita Norwood, a woman unmasked in 1999, at age 87, as the KGB's longest-serving British spy, Red Joan centers on the deeply conflicted life of a brilliant young physicist during the Second World War.
Fred Rose – Canadian Communist MP. Alleged to have led the Soviet Spy Ring. Stripped off his Canadian Citizenship.