The Spy Coast

Maggie is the protagonist of The Spy Coast. She is a retired CIA agent, a “spy,” as she puts it. When the novel begins, Maggie owns Blackberry Farm in Purity, Maine, and identifies herself as a chicken farmer. In the opening scene, she shoots a fox that was killing her chickens and then tracks it through the forest. In this scene, she reveals herself to be more than a chicken farmer—she was based in Istanbul for several years, operating undercover as a textile and fashion expert for an import/export firm.

Maggie is passionately committed to her work, even more so after she witnesses the deaths of innocent victims during one of her assignments. This commitment to her work leads to choosing her profession over her personal life—even as she falls in love and marries Danny, she uses her position as his wife to gather intelligence. Although she makes this decision, Maggie is conflicted about it, and often remarks on how she is always playing a role, imagining what a wife would do. This continues even after her retirement as Maggie constantly holds herself up against an ”ordinary” woman and acts accordingly, developing the theme of