Book Review: Princess Elizabeth's Spy by Susan Elia Macneal

Title: Princess Elizabeth's Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery
Author: Susan Elia Macneal
Paperback; Bantam, published October 16, 2012
Genre: historical mystery

About the book: Maggie Hope has been promoted to MI-5 as a secret agent/spy during WWII but because she fails the physical tests, she is assigned to watch and protect the young Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle,  under the guise of being her math teacher. The deaths of two young women, one of them a lady in waiting at Windsor Castle, become linked to a master plot that threatens the royal family.

Maggie and her father, a cryptographer working for the government at Bletchley Park, are also involved in cracking enemy codes and rooting out spies against the royal family and the English during the war.

Comments: I learned a lot about England during the war - the relentless bombing of London and other cities, their efforts to find planted spies, decode messages from Hitler's Germany, and block German plans to have King George VI replaced by his older brother Edward, who had abdicated to marry an American divorcee. Fascinating, heady stuff,  though I don't know how much of the details is based on fact and how much is fiction. I would have liked to see a more detailed disclaimer at the end of the book, though there is a list of books the author used for her research.

The plot is purely entertainment, outside of the historical facts. It has the Princess Elizabeth, a young, blue-eyed girl, taking part in an improbable plot of mystery and suspense. The author clearly admires how the British conducted themselves during WWII and has written about the present royal family's history and the princess in a somewhat sentimental way.

Princess Elizabeth's Spy ends with a question regarding Maggie's mother, which will lead this spy/sleuth into the heart of Berlin, in the follow up book. I am looking forward to it.

Susan Elia MacNeal is the author of the Maggie Hope mystery series, including her debut novel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, Princess Elizabeth’s Spy, and the upcoming Hitler’s Nightingale. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.
Visit her website at SusanEliaMacNeal.com.

For other reviews, visit the book's tour schedule. Thanks to TLC Book Tours and the author for a review ARC of this book.

Haunted Halloween Reads

Halloween Murder by Shelley Freydont

I've reprinted a post from October 2009. The books are still good in 2012! A really good mystery book for Halloween!

Here are some other Halloween mysteries to ponder:

A Catered Halloween (Mystery with Recipes) by Isis Crawford
Who Stole Halloween? by Martha Freeman
Witches Bane by Susan Wittig Albert
Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie
Cat with an Emerald Eye by Carole Nelson Douglas

Poisoned Tarts by G.A. McEvett
Trick or Treat Murder by Leslie Meier
Wicked Witch Murder by Leslie Meier
Dance of the Scarecrows by Ray Sipherd
All Hallow's Evil by Valerie Wolzien

Click on the titles for book descriptions. What are some of your favorite Halloween books?

I found a Halloween mystery set in Hawaii, Livin' Lahaina Loca by JoAnn Bassett, sitting in my Kindle:

...I whirled around and came nose-to-nose with a plastic mask sporting an impish grin and saucer-sized black ears. Halloween night in Lahaina, Maui. The happiest place on earth for a cartoon mouse looking to cop a feel. 

"You don't wanna go there," I said, grabbing the groper's forearm just above the white four-fingered glove. 

Book description: "It's Halloween in Lahaina Town, Maui and the Mardi Gras of the Pacific is in full swing... But wedding planner Pali Moon isn't in costume--she's on a mission. A bridesmaid has vanished and Pali's canvassing Front Street, hoping to spot a girl with long red hair and a lingerie model's figure. No luck. Back at her car, Pali opens the door and finds the remnants of a bizarre trick or treat stunt. Turns out, Halloween in Lahaina isn't just a night for island high-jinx, it's also a night for vengeance."

I have just discovered Kindle Cloud Reader. I might start reading this one and more of my Kindle books after all.

What An Animal Reading Challenge: Completed

The challenge, What An Animal Reading Challenge V, began March 1, 2012 and will end on February 28, 2013. I completed my goals this month by reading more than six animal related books!

Visit the challenge website hosted by Yvonne of Socrates Book Review Blog for the complete rules and to sign up with Mr. Linky!

Here are the books I have completed. Click on the titles for details/reviews.


1. Roam by Alan Lazar

2. Fashion Faux Paw: A Dog Walker's Mystery by Judi McCoy - reviewed.

3. To Catch a Leaf: A Flower Shop Mystery by Kate Collins

4. The Big Kitty by Claire Donally

5.The Dog That Talked to God by Jim Kraus

6. Tahoe Trap by Todd Borg

7.  A Fistful of Collars by Spencer Quinn

8. Following Atticus by Tom Ryan

9. Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You to Know by Hy Conrad and Jeff Johnson

Novels of Erotica

Reflected in You by Sylvia Day, Lace by Shirley Conran, and The Pleasures of Winter by Evie Hunter all showed up on my doorstep recently, courtesy of the mail. I gather that erotic romances are all the rage, especially in England, after Fifty Shades of Grey came out. Now here are some in the same genre, by other writers, sent to me courtesy of the publishers.

I haven 't read Fifty Shades of Grey and don't plan to read these either, though Lace has my attention not as erotica but as the republishing of a "scandalous bestseller that defined a generation."  (publisher's description).

Have you read any of these? If so, what do you suggest?

Book Review: The King's Damsel by Kate Emerson

Title: The King's Damsel: Secrets of the Tudor Court, No. 5
Author: Kate Emerson
Paperback, August 7, 2012; Gallery Books
Genre: historical fiction

I'm giving this a 4.5 rating, not just for this new book but for the entire series - five books! Great storytelling and weaving of romance into 16th century English history - the Tudor Court and its customs, intrigue, and of course, it's ladies.

The series has as its main characters minor ladies at court who served the Tudor queens in some capacity, mostly as ladies in waiting. Their observations and experiences as well as their personal stories give us an inside look at the complex life of the Tudors, in particular Henry VIII, his forbears, relatives, and the men and women who serve and surround him.

In The King's Damsel, Kate Emerson has given a name to an unknown woman referred to in historical letters as "the handsome young lady of the court" and the "damsel" that was a beloved of Henry VIII. This woman was also a faithful friend of Princess Mary, the king's daughter by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Emerson named her  character Thomasine (Tamsin) Lodge and filled in her story as a wealthy heiress sent to the royal court by her guardian to serve first Princess Mary and later, Anne Boleyn, who became Queen Anne, the second wife of Henry VIII.

At court, Tamsin spies for Princess Mary while serving as a lady in waiting for Queen Anne, sending secret messages about the goings on at court that could affect the Princess's claim as rightful heir to the throne. Tamsin also becomes the king's mistress, supposedly to try to influence him to favor his first daughter, whom Anne Boleyn wants to see disinherited in favor of her own child, Elizabeth.

So many tangled connections in the plot, but they are intriguing and the main characters do stand out. It also helps if you remember your English history.

I recommend this series to all lovers of historical fiction and Tudor history. This is the first series I've read set in this period and I must say it was worth reading all the books. I still have the fourth to finish, At the King's Pleasure, but enjoyed The Pleasure Palace, Between Two Queens, By Royal Decree, and this latest, The King's Damsel.  Happily, the novels don't have to be read in consecutive order.

Thanks to the publisher for complimentary copies of the books for my objective review.  

How To Love Wine by Eric Asimov

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB; choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify author and title for readers.

No longer did it seem advisable to me to pick bottles randomly at wine shops and to drink them without thought. Clearly I needed help. (p. 151)

How to Love Wine: A Memoir and Manifesto by Eric Asimov
Published October 16, 2012; William Morrow hardcover

Book description: Eric Asimov, the acclaimed chief wine critic for the New York Times, has written a combination memoir and manifesto, How to Love Wine. Asimov tells how he went from writing beer reviews for his high school newspaper on Long Island to the most coveted job in the industry. He evaluates the current wine culture, discussing trends both interesting and alarming, and celebrates the extraordinary pleasures of wine while, at the same time, questioning the conventional wisdom about wine. Throughout, he incorporates in-depth discussions of beautiful wines, both easy to find and rare. (goodreads)

Sunday Salon: Autumn Reads

Welcome to the Sunday Salon!

I seem to be reading more during this cool weather, in between taking rides to see the changing leaves and to buy pumpkins from local farms. Got some local fruit preserves for gifts and pumpkin bread for myself!

I finished reading Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Ella Macneal, though I flipped through the last third of the mystery novel, impatient for the ending and feeling the book was too padded after a very good first half.

I felt the same about Forgotten by Catherine Mckenzie, an excellent book and plot but padded with  drawn out conversation for pages and pages later on. I also flipped to the end after enjoying the plot lines of the book as laid out in the first half.


Lest you think I'm just an overly impatient reader, I'm reading every word of Joseph Kanon's Istanbul Passage, a thriller and novel of intrigue set in post-WWII Istanbul, featuring international spies and people runners trying to wrap up the frayed edges of the end of the war. I'm in the middle of the book and don't feel impelled or the least bit inclined to flip to the end!

Backyard maple makes a statement

What books have captured your attention this fall?