{"id":3554,"date":"2020-02-04T04:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T12:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2020-02-04T04:04:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T12:04:38","slug":"susan-elia-macneal-the-kings-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/susan-elia-macneal-the-kings-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Susan Elia MacNeal: The King’s Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This title will be available February 25, 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n

As I was writing my review, instead of adding \u201cSusan Elia MacNeal\u201d as the author, I almost typed \u201cMaggie Hope,” so indelible and real<\/em> has this character become.\u00a0 Maggie, the red haired spitfire who began the first book as Churchill\u2019s secretary, has now left the SOE (Secret Executive Organization) after being sequestered on a Scottish island (see The Prisoner in the Castle<\/em>).\u00a0 It\u2019s now 1943 and she\u2019s defusing bombs for the war effort.<\/p>\n

To add fuel to the fire, the \u201cBlackout Beast,\u201d a Jack the Ripper style serial killer she encountered and caught in The Queen\u2019s Accomplice<\/em> (2016), is about to be sentenced.\u00a0 He\u2019s indeed sentenced to death for his crimes, but when another serial killer turns up in London, the Beast says he can help, but will only speak to Maggie. In a neat nod to Silence of the Lambs,<\/em> Maggie does meet with the beast in the actual Tower of London, complete with resident ravens.<\/p>\n

MacNeal often deftly intertwines many plot threads in her books, and this outing is no different.\u00a0 There\u2019s a nurse who may or may not be poisoning patients; there\u2019s Maggie\u2019s work, defusing bombs; there’s a portrayal of Italian-British or “Britalian” culture; and then there\u2019s the latest killer, who supplies the police with suitcases full of clean bones.\u00a0 As the suitcases begin to turn up more frequently, MacNeal\u2019s other skill \u2013 the ability to write a ticking clock thriller \u2013 also emerges.\u00a0 This book is very difficult to put down.<\/p>\n

I think, though, that the central piece of this novel is Maggie\u2019s cri de Coeur<\/em> as she has begun to process all the very terrible things she\u2019s seen and experienced since the start of the war.\u00a0 At first, this is outward.\u00a0 Maggie is smoking and drinking to excess, while doing incredibly dangerous work that all the same gives her the adrenaline rush that takes her mind off<\/em> these terrible things.\u00a0 She\u2019s tearing around London on a motorcycle. She\u2019s putting off her beau with an over eager attitude though she can\u2019t stop thinking about the man she lost to another woman.<\/p>\n

There weren\u2019t words for \u201cPTSD\u201d back in 1943, but it happened all the same.\u00a0 As I said, Maggie is real<\/em>, so when she begins to go off the rails, your heart goes out to her.\u00a0 She\u2019s still the same brave, smart Maggie we\u2019ve come to know and love, but the cracks in her armor are starting to show.\u00a0 She\u2019s also starting to consider that the \u201cBlackout beast\u201d in the tower may have something wrong with his mind and should not be executed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe King\u2019s Justice\u201d refers to the King\u2019s ability to pardon a condemned prisoner, and the beast is demanding it in exchange for information.\u00a0 Maggie struggles with this request as she is struggling with all other aspects of her life in this novel.\u00a0 MacNeal\u2019s gift is to bring the reader inside and to make you feel what her characters are feeling and experiencing.\u00a0 As I finished the book, my heart in my throat, I felt for Maggie even while I eagerly read ahead to make sure she completes her mission, which is catching the latest killer.<\/p>\n

This series is such a standout, and MacNeal can take this reader anywhere she wants to.\u00a0 I can only say to all other readers and lovers of historical fiction out there, find a Maggie Hope novel, and find one now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This title will be available February 25, 2020. As I was writing my review, instead of adding \u201cSusan Elia MacNeal\u201d as the author, I almost typed \u201cMaggie Hope,” so indelible and real has this character become.\u00a0 Maggie, the red haired spitfire who began the first book as Churchill\u2019s secretary, has now left the SOE (Secret … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10,306,42,149],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-historical","tag-maggie-hope","tag-susan-elia-macneal","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3556,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions\/3556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}