The novel also suffers from a lack of consistency and focus, especially in the areas of character and narrative drive. Baughman succeeds in endowing her major characters with three-dimensional qualities. But Baughman's minor characters, including some crucial to the plot, lack depth. This defect requires the reader to page back to identify them. A Spy Within starts slowly and dawdles.
Extraneous scenes dissipate the excitement.
For example, Baughman describes two dinners in detail, including their preparation. Neither dinner furthers the plot. The characters introduced in these scenes add nothing to the plot, and the red herrings they provide fail to enhance the mystery or increase the number of possible suspects. By the same token, scenes or explanations needed to provide foundation for the plot's unexpected twists and turns never occur. At the same time, the detail lavished on the extraneous characters and relationships introduced in the dinners and demonstrations further sidetracks the reader.