Creation Lake is, in part, an unconventional literary spy thriller. As such, it engages with one of the genre’s key tropes: problematic protagonists. Sadie, like many other literary spies, is effective in her work in part because of her unconventional moral code and lack of traditional ethics. Like many spies, she is a wry observer of human relationships rather than an active participant in functional interpersonal unions, and like many other literary spies, she counts substance use disorders among her coping mechanisms. However, Sadie’s character is also meant to ask broader questions about the ethics of espionage. Her manipulative nature and duplicitous approach to romance, coupled with her history of using entrapment and her willingness to commit other small crimes, gesture toward a general lack of regard for human life that is at the core of espionage as a practice.

Sadie is involved romantically with several men throughout the course of the narrative. In each case, she uses the liaison to extract information from her target and manipulate that target into helping her achieve her goals. Lucien, whom she dislikes but pretends to be engaged to, gets her closer to Pascal.