{"id":4981,"date":"2023-05-05T14:17:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T21:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4981"},"modified":"2023-05-05T14:17:39","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T21:17:39","slug":"ashley-weaver-playing-it-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/ashley-weaver-playing-it-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Weaver: Playing it Safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Electra McDonnell #3<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>If Nancy Drew had lived during WWII and had the skills of a safecracker, she might have grown up to be Ashley Weaver\u2019s appealing Electra McDonnell.\u00a0 Electra, or Ellie, has been trained by her safecracking uncle and in the first book is recruited by the government to put her skills to a more patriotic use.\u00a0 While Ellie\u2019s past is criminal, her present is in the service of her country, and as the book opens, she\u2019s given an assignment with few details other than \u201cget to know the locals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assignment calls for her to take the train from London to Sunderland, a small town on the northeast coast of the U.K.\u00a0 Because it\u2019s small, the bombings are far fewer than in middle-of-the-blitz London, and Ellie appreciates the break.\u00a0 She\u2019s given an identity (one she\u2019s used before), a place to stay, a cover story, and a book on birding.\u00a0 She studies the book but is no closer to finding out what it might mean, though she does learn a bit about birds.<\/p>\n

Weaver has given Electra two possible suitors: Felix, who is practically family, and her \u201chandler,\u201d Major Ramsey.\u00a0 He\u2019s the one who\u2019s given Ellie her assignment and has told her he\u2019ll turn up at some point.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Ellie is greeted on arrival by a mysterious traffic death of a young officer in the street in front of her rooming house.\u00a0 Accident \u2013 or murder?\u00a0 This is a mystery, so that bit is easy to figure, but the overall storyline which involves birding, the man\u2019s mysterious death, the appearance of Major Ramsey and a printing company that seems to be in use for unknown purposes all turn into a well told, mysterious, and enjoyable tale.<\/p>\n

The tension between the Major and Ellie is strong, and Felix is off canvas for this instalment, so their feelings are given somewhat free reign, albeit under wartime circumstances.\u00a0 Weaver is great with a brisk plot and she\u2019s also great with character.\u00a0 Both Major Ramsey, and more importantly, Ellie herself are well drawn and interesting.\u00a0 While Ellie as a character is somewhat in the intrepid female heroine mould, but she has some differences that make her a standout.<\/p>\n

For one thing, she\u2019s been raised as a criminal, and for another, she has lock picking and safecracking skills.\u00a0 She\u2019s interestingly uncertain about her future, and so is the reader.\u00a0 She\u2019s found this undercover work during the war, but what happens next?\u00a0 She\u2019s appealingly curious as well as intelligent, and she sticks up for herself (just like Nancy Drew!) She also has an intriguing backstory: her mother died in prison, accused of her father\u2019s murder.\u00a0 This thread has been pulled through all the books.<\/p>\n

There are several local characters that provide both a suspect pool and an insight into the life of a small town, and Weaver makes each of them different enough from one another to stay in the reader\u2019s mind as they add complexity and interest to the plot.\u00a0 And much like a good Nancy Drew story, this book ends with a couple cliffhangers:\u00a0 what\u2019s next with the Major and Felix, and what\u2019s the truth behind the death of Ellie\u2019s mother.\u00a0 This juicy backstory is obviously the plot for the next novel, and I just can\u2019t wait.\u00a0 This engaging and insanely enjoyable series has real reading sparkle. —\u00a0Robin Agnew\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Electra McDonnell #3 If Nancy Drew had lived during WWII and had the skills of a safecracker, she might have grown up to be Ashley Weaver\u2019s appealing Electra McDonnell.\u00a0 Electra, or Ellie, has been trained by her safecracking uncle and in the first book is recruited by the government to put her skills to a … 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":[403,713,1183,1180,10,1184,100,1185,1182,1181],"class_list":["post-4981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-adventure","tag-ashley-weaver","tag-birding","tag-electra-mcdonnell","tag-historical","tag-love-interest","tag-minotaur-books","tag-playing-it-safe","tag-safecracking","tag-wwii-england"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981","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=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4983,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions\/4983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}