A fun diversion with an entertaining female lead.
Oliver offers another whimsical World War I espionage escapade featuring a file clerk/spy-in-training working for British Intelligence.
It’s 1917, and Fiona Figg has recently returned from her first reconnaissance assignment in Ravenswick Abbey, where she went undercover as the fictional Dr. Vogel. Now, she’s being sent to Paris. Her orders from the War Office’s Capt. Reginald “Blinker” Hall are clear: She’s to trail Fredrick Fredricks, a famed South African hunter, acclaimed journalist, and deadly spy for Germany known as the Black Panther. She’s not to use disguises, nor is she to establish contact with Fredricks. Instead, Fiona is to be pretty much herself: a young, recent widow—never mind it was her ex-husband who succumbed to German mustard gas—visiting her great-aunt in Paris, where she’ll be staying at the Grand Hotel. The first clue that things won’t go as planned appears when readers learn that Fiona has stuffed her suitcase with a variety of costumes, wigs, and hats. On the way to Paris, she meets charming, mischievous, elegantly attired Lady Gresha MacLeod, aka the notorious Mata Hari, who, it turns out, is planning a Parisian rendezvous with Fredricks. Also on the train, to Fiona’s consternation, is Capt. Clifford Douglas, also of the War Office, who’s not supposed to know about her mission; worse, he’s staying at the Grand Hotel, as well. Obviously, Fiona’s sleuthing will require camouflage—so she becomes “Harold the helpful bellboy.” Harold, with his fake mustache, trousers that are a bit too long, and shoes two sizes too large, provides Oliver with considerable opportunity for comic relief in this sequel, which occasionally borders on the slapstick. The author also treads into Oscar Wilde territory when flirty chambermaid Berthe sets her sites on Harold. Fiona, as the first-person narrator, gives readers direct access to her frequently acerbic mental asides and social commentary along the way. In between murders and speculation about double agents, Oliver treats readers to an often amusing romp through upscale 1917 Paris, where the partying stands in stark contrast to the squalid conditions that the protagonist experiences in a Parisian jail.
A fun diversion with an entertaining female lead.Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 321
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.
An aspiring mystery writer sets out to solve her great-aunt’s murder and inherit an estate.
Twenty-five-year-old Annie Adams has never met her great-aunt Frances, who prefers her small village to busy London. But when a mysterious letter arrives instructing Annie to come to Castle Knoll in Dorset to meet Frances and discuss her role as sole beneficiary of her great-aunt’s estate, Annie can’t resist. Unfortunately, she arrives to find Frances’ worst fears have come true: The elderly woman—who’s been haunted for decades by a fortuneteller’s prediction that this will happen—has been murdered, and her will dictates that she will leave her entire estate to Annie, but only if Annie solves her killing. It’s a cheeky if not exactly believable premise, especially since the local police don’t seem terribly opposed to it. Annie herself is an engaging presence, if a little too blind to the fact that she could be on the killer’s to-do list. Her roll call of suspects is pleasingly long, including but not limited to the local vicar, a one-time paramour of her great-aunt’s; a gardener who grows a lot more than flowers; shady developers and suspicious friends from Frances’ past; and Saxon, Annie’s crafty rival, who inherits the estate himself if he manages to solve the case first. Annie pieces together clues through readings of Frances’ journal, but the story eventually runs aground on the twin rocks of too much explanation and a flimsy climax. Cute dialogue gives way to lengthy exposition, and by the time Frances’ killer is revealed you may well be ready to leave Annie, Dorset, and Castle Knoll behind for the firmer ground of reality. Fans of cozy mysteries are likely to be more forgiving, but if you cast a skeptical eye toward amateur sleuths, this novel won’t change your mind about them.
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593474013
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.
A woman’s life takes a stunning turn and a wall comes tumbling down in this tense Cold War spy drama.
In Berlin in 1989, the wall is about to crumble, and Anne Simpson’s husband, Stefan Koehler, goes missing. She is a translator working with refugees from the communist bloc, and he is a piano tuner who travels around Europe with orchestras. Or so he claims. German intelligence service the BND and America’s CIA bring her in for questioning, wrongly thinking she’s protecting him. Soon she begins to learn more about Stefan, whom she had met in the Netherlands a few years ago. She realizes he’s a “gregarious musician with easy charm who collected friends like a beachcomber collects shells, keeping a few, discarding most.” Police find his wallet in a canal and his prized zither in nearby bushes but not his body. Has he been murdered? What’s going on? And why does the BND care? If Stefan is alive, he’s in deep trouble, because he’s believed to be working for the Stasi. She’s told “the dead have a way of showing up. It is only the living who hide.” And she’s quite believable when she wonders, “Can you grieve for someone who betrayed you?” Smart and observant, she notes that the reaction by one of her interrogators is “as false as his toupee. Obvious, uncalled for, and easily put on.” Lurking behind the scenes is the Matchmaker, who specializes in finding women—“American. Divorced. Unhappy,” and possibly having access to Western secrets—who will fall for one of his Romeos. Anne is the perfect fit. “The matchmaker turned love into tradecraft,” a CIA agent tells her. But espionage is an amoral business where duty trumps decency, and “deploring the morality of spies is like deploring violence in boxers.” It’s a sentiment John le Carré would have endorsed, but Anne may have the final word.
Intrigue, murder, and vengeance make for a darkly enjoyable read.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64313-865-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
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