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In January of 1991 the Soviet Union had broken apart. Political chaos combined with an economic collapse so violent that food was scarce and men sent their wives to the streets for mutual survival. To this milieu, actress, independent filmmaker, and author, Williams arrived in Leningrad with a fellow filmmaker. While there for eight days, the seeds for this riveting suspense were laid.
The protagonist, Kate Hennessy, travels to Russia with her boss and his business partner to present their film at Leningrad's Second International Documentary Festival. Kate is tormented by an altercation with her lover back in New York City and their history of arguments. Being enrolled in a NYC course in guerrilla filmmaking, she sets out to gather footage for her project, "Letters from Leningrad." During the festival she discovers an underground group of gay women, engages them in illicit personal conversations, and captures them on audiotape. However, on her first day in Leningrad, she inadvertently films two men in conversation. This is not good. She subsequently is abducted and left for dead. Repeatedly, the KGB closes in to kill her, but she is fit, bright, and hardy—outwitting them at every turn. Each attempt is more fearsome than those before, and when Kate returns safely to her home in New York, she discovers the KGB is still stalking her.
Williams' writing partner, Eileen Wyman, worked in radio and TV. She wrote comedy for speech writers and comedians, humorous fillers for magazines, and captions for cartoonists. On her return to New York City, Williams and Wyman drafted the plot weaving into the narrative important political and gender issues. The movement of who, how, and why within the plot is complex and makes an engaging page turner. Ultimately these women created this gripping murder mystery, which is part page-turner and part historical exposé.
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