Maggie Hope, an American-raised Briton with
outsized math skills and heaps of grit, has risen from her position as a typist
at 10 Downing Street
to a job as a spy for MI-5. Her first assignment is pretty grand—she's sent to Windsor Castle to root out a German spy who's
planning to harm the young Princess Elizabeth. Maggie integrates into the
palace rapidly, earning the clever young royal's trust and learning to deal
with the surprising difficulties of living in a castle, which it turns out is:
"like living in a very cold museum in the off-season." But there's
not much time to focus on all the frozen finery: Dangers to the Princess
proliferate rapidly, and Maggie races to find their instigator before it's too
late. The ensuing chase is terrifying, but the true accomplishment of
this book is the wonderfully complex Maggie, who is at once a
brilliant heroine fighting against the Nazis; a young woman stuck in the middle of a painful
love triangle; and an inexperienced professional trying to figure out
her extremely difficult job. With deft, empathic
prose, author MacNeal creates a wholly engrossing portrait of a
coming-of-age woman under fire. Whether you read
Mr.
Churchill's Secretary, the first installment in this series, or you're just
making Miss Hope's acquaintance, she'll draw you in from the first page. By the
end, you'll be her loyal subject, ready to follow her wherever she goes—especially
through the pages of a third installment.
