The Maggie Hope Mysteries by Susan Elia MacNeal (2012-16 fiction)

This is a series of books beginning with Mr. Churchill’s Secretary and progressing to the sixth book (so far), The Queen’s Accomplice. Maggie Hope is a transplanted American living in London during
World War II. She inherits her grandmother’s house and travels to London with the idea of selling it,
but instead, the war breaks out and she decides to stay and lend a hand. She has an advanced degree in mathematics, and her first job as a secretary in the Prime Minister’s office reveals her aptitude for cryptography, which then leads to training with MI-5 to become a spy. In the first book, she learns that her runaway mother works for the Nazis, and the father she thought was dead works at Bletchley Park as a code breaker. After helping to foil a plot to destroy St. Paul’s Cathedral in Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, successive books find her as a guardian for the young Princess Elizabeth, parachuting into Germany to spy on the Nazis, investigating the deaths of dancers in the Vic-Wells ballet troupe, traveling to America with the Prime Minister after Pearl Harbor and helping solve the murder of Eleanor Roosevelt’s secretary, and in the sixth book, unraveling the mystery of a Jack the Ripper copycat.There is a 7th book in the works, The Paris Spy, which should be out sometime soon. While these are definitely fiction in terms of the main characters and their exploits, all have a historical background that includes major players in World War II. Each book will “catch you up” on main events in prior books, but there is a benefit to reading them in order. These are great light reading for those rainy days that you can’t do anything else, and you find yourself eagerly anticipating the next event.

Reviewed by Ginger Russell