The Prisoner in the Castle

The Prisoner in the Castle is the fourth novel that I’ve reviewed by Susan Elia MacNeal, two of which were from her 12- novel Maggie Hope series which take place mostly in London during WWII. This novel is the eighth in this series. I raved about Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, the first book in the series, as well as the 12^th book entitled “The Last Hope.” I also thought a free-standing novel entitled Mother Daughter Traitor Spy was excellent. It was about the Nazi movement in Los Angeles during Hitler’s rise to power.

Unfortunately, The Prisoner in the Castle was not of equal value from this reader’s perspective. After having been officially trained as a spy and having been given information about the planned D-Day landing, someone decided that Maggie knew too much to risk allowing her to be captured by the German forces. It was thought that if her information was revealed under torture, that the success of the Allied Forces was in danger. She was sent to a small remote Scottish isle along with 10 other people for similar reasons. However, once she was on the island, Maggie learned that there had been 10 murders of a prior group of exiles. Then, the murders began again of this new group, one at a time. The remaining spies, all trained in the art of killing in various ways, were in a panic about who among them could be committing these crimes.

 

I thought the plot was ridiculous, and Ms. Hope’s escapes from physical danger seemed even more farfetched. I did listen to the audiobook format available on Libby, but I can’t recommend this one – I was so disappointed, but I’m still going to try one of the unread novels in this series. Maggie Hope herself is a most talented and compelling character and I don’t want to give up on her after one disappointing story.