bullfighting

Maggie Hope #11

I’ve been a full on fan of this series from the publication of Mr. Churchill’s Secretary (2012).  MacNeal’s combination of adventure story, history and a vivid and intrepid heroine in the form of Maggie Hope has been irresistible. Maggie, an American who came to Britain during the war and snagged a job in Churchill’s office, finds herself coming full circle: in the first novel she found an assassin, in this last novel, she’s asked to be an assassin.

Many things have happened to Maggie over the course of this long war, and she’s now a full on member of the SOE – Special Operations Executive – Churchill’s squad of espionage agents, of whom more than 3,000 were women.  Their work involved going into occupied Europe and working undercover.  The SOE was formed in 1940, and it was dissolved in ’46, so as this series draws to a close, so does the war and the SOE itself.  It’s a fitting arc for this wonderful character. read more