White Raven by Maggie Ritchie

 

White Raven by Maggie Ritchie.

Published 15th November 2025 by Scotland Street Press.

From the cover of the book:

Bored with life as a teacher in an Edinburgh girls’ school, artist Rosie recognises Alex Kuznetsov from her previous life as a decoder at Bletchley Park. Alex, a war hero and anti-Soviet intelligence officer, is running a Russian language school for National Servicemen to put Britain’s best and brightest young men through intensive training as translators and intelligence operators in the event of a third world war.

During an ardent courtship, Rosie joins the JSSL as an art teacher, but she soon finds out that there is more to her role as Alex gains her confidence and persuades her to take on a daring undercover espionage mission in a Highland country house.

Rosie discovers that the world of spies is full of treachery, manipulation and deceit, and that what started out as a thrilling game can have deadly consequences.

Faced with a choice between duty and love, and between stability and adventure, Rosie must decide where her loyalties lie.

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Scotland, 1956. Artist Rosie has settled into life as an art teacher at an Edinburgh girls' school, but is finding her job less than exciting. On a painting holiday in Crail, she bumps into war hero, Alex Kuznetsov, the handsome Russian she admired from afar during her time as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park. The anti-Soviet intelligence officer is now running a Russian language school (JSSL), turning bright young servicemen into spies in preparation for another world war, and he invites Rosie to spend the summer teaching art to his pupils.

During the summer at JSSL, Rosie and Alex embark on a passionate affair. As she finds herself falling for Alex, he persuades her to take on a more active role in pursuit of the school's aims - a mission protecting secret documents from falling into the wrong hands at a Highland country house. Rosie agrees, but she soon realises that the world of espionage is one of deception and betrayal, and she will eventually have to make a choice about where her loyalties really lie.

In this deliciously crafted novel told through the eyes of artists Rosie, Ritchie weaves a compelling tale based on the existence of the very real JSSL, the Cold War Joint Services School for Linguistics, where promising candidates (including the likes of writers Dennis Potter and Alan Bennett) were put through their paces by White Russian émigrés and Soviet defectors.

Ritchie makes the JSSL a school for spies, where its pupils and staff all seem to have murky agendas of their own - not necessarily for the good of their British intelligence paymasters. But what makes this so engaging is that it is beautifully character-led, with Rosie at the middle of several plotlines that encompass love, loss, friendship, and family - alongside the sinister thrills and spills that an authentic Cold War espionage tale calls for.

Rosie, with her fierce intelligence and loyalty holds you attention throughout. Her romantic history, complicated family situation, and utter trust in Alex lead her into deep waters, and Ritchie keeps her cards close to her chest about where all this will lead her heroine. I was hooked on every twist and turn, with my heart in my mouth, totally immersed in Rosie's dilemmas.

Evocative themes run through the story, and Ritchie excels at writing about time and place, particularly the heightened atmosphere of fear of a nuclear arms race ending in another world war - this time with Britain caught between the super-powers of America and Soviet Russia. The cast of characters gives a lovely glimpse of many other aspects of 1950's life too, including the world of theatre, the attractions of Hollywood glamour, complex feelings around post-war recriminations, the class divide, the role of women, and sexuality... which all add to the mix in creating a satisfying and thought provoking story action-wise and emotionally.

I loved this gem from start to finish, and thoroughly enjoyed looking at the world of spies through a Rosie tinted lens!

White Raven is available to buy now in hardcover.

Thank you to Scotland Street Press for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Folk PR for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Maggie Ritchie’s novel, Looking for Evelyn, was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Best Published Novel 2018. Her debut novel, Paris Kiss (2015), won the Curtis Brown Prize, was runner up for the Sceptre Prize, and longlisted for the Mslexia First Novel Competition. Daisy Chain was published by Two Roads/ Hachette in 2021 following a Society of Authors funded research trip to Shanghai.

Maggie graduated with Distinction rom the University of Glasgow’s MLitt in Creative Writing. A journalist, she lives in Scotland with her husband and son.