From the publisher
Spy and code-breaker extraordinaire Maggie Hope returns to war-weary London, where she is thrust into the dangerous hunt for a monster, as the New York Times bestselling mystery series for fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, and Anne Perry continues.
England, 1942. The Nazis’ relentless Blitz may have paused, but London’s nightly blackouts continue. Now, under the cover of darkness, a madman is brutally killing and mutilating young women in eerie and exact re-creations of Jack the Ripper’s crimes. What’s more, he’s targeting women who are reporting for duty to be Winston Churchill’s spies and saboteurs abroad. The officers at MI-5 quickly realize they need the help of special agent Maggie Hope to find the killer dubbed “the Blackout Beast.” A trap is set. But once the murderer has his sights on Maggie, not even Buckingham Palace can protect the resourceful spy from her fate.
My Review of The Queen’s Accomplice
“The Queen’s Accomplice” is more of a traditional mystery than a spy novel. It also takes on the issue of women’s rights in a very direct manner. The lines are drawn on both sides of the issue, with Maggie in favor of making improvements and her superiors opposed.
The murders committed by the Blackout Beast are grisly in nature. There are no stomach-churning descriptions, but the subject is most definitely a grisly one.
The dialogue is clean and natural for the time. The setting, war-torn London, remains a fascinating time and place. Two subplots in the story may foreshadow what is to come.
This installment has taken a turn away from what originally distinguished the series. This installment is not a code-breaker turned spy story, it sits squarely in the realm of the traditional mystery. That’s not to say change is bad, it’s simply different. And those subplots just may return us to this series’ roots.
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