From the Bookshelf of La Crosse Public Library …

[close] This book is a great spy story wrapped up in a fascinating alternate history. The preface sets the scene. In 1912, Teddy Roosevelt is contending against William Taft for the soul of the Republican party Progressives versus Conservatives, respectively, when a telegram arrives. Taft has died of a heart attack, leaving TR a clear path to another term as president.

A few years later, the First World War is raging in Europe. TR is on the verge of joining Britain and France to fight the Kaiser. A field operative of TR’s Black Chamber and a young woman of varied and interesting background, Luz O’Malley Arostegui, takes a luxury airship to France and inserts herself into the middle of a multi-nation spy versus spy caper. What she discovers is a monstrous weapon that’s about to be unleashed on the unsuspecting United States, unless she can get word back to the president in time.

This feels like the beginning of a series, and I’m certainly hoping to read more about Luz!

~Noreen, Reference Librarian