Claire Griffith and Violet Bates are the two agents detailed in The Spy Girl Files.
We are given a wonderful introduction to these very interesting ladies in the blurb for the collection of their adventures. It tells us that: "Before they were mothers and grandmothers, the women of the Greatest Generation were many other things. Including spies. Meet Violet and Claire. Violet, the faithful suburban wife and mother, PTA president and Girl Scout leader. The perfect image of post-war blue-collar domesticity. Claire, the privileged daughter of a diplomat. A spinster, dedicated to bettering the lives of others as a civil servant, a woman in a man's world. Two women with nothing in common. Until the secrets of their past begin to emerge."
The introduction to these delightful tales gives us more intel on why and how these classified escapades became known to us when we are informed that these recorded adventures where the stories "of two women, brought together in a comfortable retirement community in the late 1970s.
"For more than three decades, Violet Bates followed a traditional path from young wife to mother to widow. Too young to settle into a routine, Violet finds herself drawn to the secrets within her new community.
"Claire Griffith never married, opting instead for life as a civil servant. Disillusioned, she chooses retirement rather than continue to battle the glass ceiling, and goes looking for peace and quiet.
"Both women carry secrets; history and skills they hide even from those closest to them. Eventually they must trust someone with their stories, but finding someone to trust can prove as dangerous as a clandestine operation."
The two opening tales both have their starts before the two young women become directly involved in espionage but both show the personal traits that will be major factors in their upcoming careers.
Bates is shown to be an almost mousey quiet young girl who surprises everyone with her tenacity when she sees justice is not being served, taking an attitude of 'if no one else is stepping up, I will." This determination will not leave her as she ages. Nor will her intimate understanding of what it is like to have to pinch pennies to survive.
Griffith, on the other hand, always had whatever she needed as a child but that came with an expectation that she remain a sweet, uninvolved young lady. She might have been sweet but she was very much aware of the War just really starting around her. All her life she had demonstrated a "chameleon-like ability to be whatever someone wanted to see-obedient child, poised diplomatic daughter, innocent debutante, eager student-everyone from her nannies and governesses to heads of state approved of her". That skill will serve her well.