Longboaters sip, shop and spy for the library

Jane Hughes only spent a few years working for the CIA, but says the experience left her thinking a lot about secrets. 

“I was in the Soviet bureau at the agency back in the days when there was a Soviet bureau,” she said. 

That was in the late 1970s and early 1980s. On Friday, the now author and Harvard professor was signing copies of her books at J. McLaughlin. The book signing was part of a Sip & Shop event to benefit the Longboat Library. From 1 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 17, the clothing store donated 15% of its sales to the library. 

When Hughes dropped off a copy of her latest book, “The Spy’s Wife,” it was an instant hit with library patrons.

“I sat down and read it within 24 hours. I got hooked,” President Mary Baker said. “We’re not selling it. We’re just passing it around, and everybody who’s read it has said, ‘I love that book.’ I think that’s why all these people are here.”

Refreshments were laid out for the sip portion of the event, and the store stayed crowded around the register and Hughes’ signing table. Everyone wanted to know if “The Spy’s Wife” was based on personal experience.

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

“They all have some tiny, little grain of something that I observed sometime,” Hughes said.  

The grain from “The Spy’s Wife” stuck with her for 40 years. While working for the CIA, Hughes met a woman in her 20s whose father was a top officer in the agency for her entire life, but the woman had only just found out. Her mother didn’t know either. They thought Dad was in sales. 

Hughes’ previous two novels center around famous historical mysteries. Both set in modern day, “Nannyland” looks back to July 1553 when the teenaged Lady Jane Grey held the throne of England and Ireland for a mere nine days, and “The Long-Lost Jules” delves into the mystery of Queen Katherine Parr’s baby. Parr was the last of Henry VIII’s six queens. 

“I would say that 'Jules' is about secrets,” Hughes said. “It’s about uncovering the secret of what happened to this lost baby and about uncovering secrets in the hero and her life.”