Mr Churchill's Secretary
A Maggie Hope Mystery - Book 1
By Susan Elia MacNeal ©2012
Audio book narrated by Donada Peters (9:45 h)
This is an audio book that I bought very cheap a couple of years ago but didn't listen to until now, as more recently I also happened to buy another book in the same series on sale - entitled Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante (No 5). It wasn't until I had already bought that one that not only did I discover that I already had a previous title by the same author - but it was about the same character!
Checking out the whole series, I found that there are by now no less than 11 titles about Maggie Hope - who seems to have had quite an extraordinary carreer, to say the least - even for a fictional character! ... Which in itself made me feel a bit "wary"... But as I already had No 1, I decided to start with that one. And as far as that one goes, I have to say I found myself liking it better than I had expected.
It starts in London in 1940, just after Winston Churchill has been sworn in. Maggie Hope is an intelligent and well educated young woman, but because of her gender, she has to accept just getting employed as a typist at No. 10 Downing Street. However, her real talent is in mathematics and codebreaking; and as the war progresses, she also gets opportunities to demonstrate that - which no doubt lays the foundation for future adventures in the later books, implied in titles like Princess Elizabeth's Spy, His Majesty's Hope, The Prime Minister's Secret Agent, Mrs Roosevelt's Confidante, The Queen's Accomplice... etc.
I did quite enjoy this first book though, as it seems based on quite a bit of research into the historical setting - and also including the character of Churchill himself, comparing my impressions from other books about him that I've read. I also quite liked Maggie... Not sure how much it may have to do with having worked as a somewhat overqualified typist /secretary myself - even if my own strength was never in the field of mathematics.
As the next book I already have in my possession is No 5 in the series, I guess I'll jump forward to that one next, though; before deciding if I mignt find it worth while to later also acquire the ones in between - or not.
It sounds like an interesting concept for a series of books, but I am not so keen on the WWII setting in general. Still, any author who puts in time and effort to research the background and facts that enter the story deserves our respect.
ReplyDeleteMeike, I've just got started on No 5, and there we're still only in 1941 (with Churchill visiting the White House). So no doubt the whole series is war-related. Checking up the author a bit more, I note that she was nominated for various awards throughout the series and also made the New York Times bestseller list with several of them.
DeleteIt sounds an interesting series, though characters like 'Maggie' make me feel most inadequate.
ReplyDeleteJanice, no doubt it's easier to be a heroine in a book than in real life! ;-)
DeleteNot an author I've come across before. The series sounds interesting, so I'll look out for them on Amazon. Lately I've noticed that when I buy a book for my Kindle, I find that I also own the audio version which is something I've never used.
ReplyDeleteCarol, getting the audio version for free when I buy the e-book is not something I can recall having come across. With some series, though, I know that it may pay off to buy the e-book first, because then you get a substational discount on the audio. That does not seem to be an option for me with this series, though. (I use Amazon/Audible US, offers may be different if you buy from the UK.)
DeleteI buy my Kindle books from Amazon UK. I pay from my UK bank account which saves bothering with exchange rates.
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