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.

The Last Hope

In early 3/24, I read the first in a series known as the Maggie Hope Mystery Series by Susan Elia MacNeal. I really enjoyed the first book, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, and now in mid 4/24, I’ve read the last in the 11-book series, The Last Hope. This isn’t the way I typically take on a new series, much preferring to read through the books in order so I can see the characters and storyline develop. I least I know I have nine more books available to look forward to.

 

Maggie is a compelling character. She is an Irish lass whose parents, or so she thought, were killed in a car crash when she was quite young. She was then shipped to the U.S. to be taken care by her aunt, an academic. Maggie is was a very bright woman who, in the first book, struggled with the misogyny of the WWII era. Despite her mathematical and science background, when she volunteered her services for the British war effort, she was assigned to a typing a pool. Nonetheless, her talents could not be denied and she very quickly rose from being a typist to becoming Churchill’s secretary, and subsequently to being an MI-6 codebreaker, and finally a spy for the British. It was in The Last Hope that she was sent on an assassination mission. She was to meet the German scientist who was responsible for building their atomic fission bomb. There was a “race of the laboratories” between the Allies and Axis powers, and it seemed quite certain that while Germany was already losing the war, if they developed the bomb first, then they would likely be the victors.

 

Maggie has a fiancé at home as she was sent first to Lisbon and then to Madrid in order to determine if Professor Werner Heisenberg had made enough progress on his own atomic project to really be a threat to the Allies. Complicating the assignment was the unexpected pregnancy that Maggie discovered while she was on this assignment. Perhaps the most interesting character in the story was Coco Chanel, the French woman who was getting rich from the sales of her perfume. Although she was French, Coco was collaborating with the Nazis and the author made it clear that Coco was a horrible anti-Semitic woman. This was a good plot filled with a cast of fascinating characters. Not only do I recommend this book, but I’m assuming the series is a promising one.

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal

Mother Daughter Traitor Spy by Susan Elia MacNeal is a WWII novel of which I’ve read so many, but this is a new story in a new location. The book starts in New York and then lands in Los Angeles in 1940. Veronica Grace, a very promising national award winning journalism major has just graduated from college and intended to take a job with a prominent magazine, Mademoiselle. But when Betsy Blackwell, the legendary editor in chief of the magazine learned of Veronica’s affair, she invoked the moral clause in Veronica’s contract and then withdrew the offer of a job. Veronica’s affair with a prominent man led to getting blackballed from any real journalistic jobs in New York. Max Applebaum’s wife was the daughter of one of the titans of New York City publishing. She was faced with a tough decision and she chose to move to LA, along with her widowed mother. Veronica made the move without having prearranged employment. Her mother was also a beautiful blond and the daughter of German immigrants. They were not left with much of an estate from Veronica’s deceased father, so the women both needed to find employment.

 

With the war already starting in Europe, there was much talk about world affairs, and it was established early in the novel that there were many German agents throughout the U.S. who were looking for ways to support Germany and Hitler in the war effort. As the daughter of immigrants, both Veronica’s mother, Violet “Vi,” looked German, spoke German, and lived in a German community in New York City. It was Vi’s brother that offered them one of his houses in Santa Monica.

 

Despite their connection to the German community, Veronica and Vi were not friends of Hitler. Rather, they were quite upset about the anti-democratic events that they knew were happening. Some of Veronica’s undergraduate writings were specifically anti-Nazi pieces. Meanwhile, the FBI agents in LA were tracking pro-Nazi events there, and early in the book, one of their agents was murdered when his true purpose was discovered by the Nazi sympathizers. 

 

With that setup, this is a story about Veronica and Vi stumbling into a group of Germans in LA, some of whom were active in the pro-Nazi movement. Being desperate to find work, Veronica volunteered her typing skills to a German businessman who she only later discovered was the source of hateful anti-Jew propaganda. She needed the work but was ready to quit the job because of the content this organization was putting forward. However, Veronica and Vi were then encouraged by the FBI to continue to be infiltrators and informants. That’s what the story was about as the protagonist and their mother began to move in the Nazi circles where they gathered information to pass along to the FBI. While being fully aware of the danger they were in if discovered, they chose to continue this work. When they passed along some data that led to the interruption of planned pro-Nazi activities, the leaders became suspicious that there was a  mole in their midst and suddenly Veronica and Vi became suspects of being the moles.

 

I thought the novel offered a new look at terrorism at home, and considering the civil unrest that was the goal of the Nazis, much of this sounded similar to some of the anti-democratic news reports that are currently occurring in the U.S.