Mr. Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope Mystery, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

May 26, 2013 D.G. rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, reviewed, historical-fiction

**2.5 stars**

Mr. Churchill's Secretary is not really a mystery. There's a dead body but no investigation as to who killed this person. Instead, it's more of a spy tale set in WWII.

☼THE GOOD☼
✔ Mathematician main character: Women are into science too and it's high time we have more of them in books.

✔ London during the Blitz: I don't know much about the political climate in England in 1940. Learning how many people thought Hitler was going to leave them alone, what people thought of Churchill, the ...more

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May 14, 2012 Chris rated it it was ok

Shelves: mystery, fiction, war, united-kingdom, series, mystery-cozy, mystery-historical

Merely meh, which is a real disappointment because I was really looking forward to this book. I tend to love stories set during the London Blitz (not sure why); I find the period fascinating. And here we have the story of a young woman, Maggie Hope, born in England but raised in the United States after being orphaned, who finds herself back in London in 1940 with a job as secretary to the new prime minister, Winston Churchill. She is sharing the home she inherited from an aunt with a group of yo Merely meh, which is a real disappointment because I was really looking forward to this book. I tend to love stories set during the London Blitz (not sure why); I find the period fascinating. And here we have the story of a young woman, Maggie Hope, born in England but raised in the United States after being orphaned, who finds herself back in London in 1940 with a job as secretary to the new prime minister, Winston Churchill. She is sharing the home she inherited from an aunt with a group of young women, most trying to do their bit for the war effort, and there's a group of young male friends. Maggie is a brilliant mathematician who had been headed for MIT before being called to take care of the inheritance, and she is NOT happy about being turned down for a higher level position only because of her gender. Meanwhile there are two other stories being interwoven. The IRA is carrying out a series of bombings in London trying to destabilize Churchill's government. A young woman working for them infiltrates a group of Nazi sympathizers with the idea of bringing the two groups together. There is also a mystery surrounding Maggie herself and the death of her father. People at 10 Downing Street keep talking in back rooms, "Does she know?" "Should we tell her?" THis could have been so much better, but there are way too many people to keep track of. I had to keep doing back to figure out who was who. And the plots are so totally unrealistic as to be silly, and that was a big detractor for me.

***************SPOILER ALERT **************************

And one of the biggest problems is that the woman working for the IRA turns out to be one of Maggie's flatmates. At the beginning of the book she's described as a debutante from a wealthy Virginia family who went to school with Maggie at Wellesley. Later in the book she reveals she became an IRA partisan because her family summered in Belfast and she watched as the Black and Tans raped her mother and shot her father. While I have no doubt the protestant paramilitary forces carried out numerous rapes and murders, I find it highly unlikely they would have attacked a prominent American family (Catholic or not) or that such an event would have gone unnoticed. Nor does it explain how then the woman still ended up at Wellesley. Something in this story is just missing and one gets the feeling--here and throughout the story--that the author simply twisted anything to make the story work. The ability of MI-5 to find people within moments seemed completely ludicrous.

This is apparently the start of a new series, but I don't think I'll be eager to read the rest. ...more

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Dec 22, 2015 Nell rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: awards-finalists, another-time, z2015

Enthralling espionage set just after England declares war on Nazi Germany. On the eve of WWII, the protagonist is on her way to MIT for graduate work when she journeys to England to sale her grandmother's house The house remained unsold so Maggie invites a friend from college and then a few acquaintances to room with her and share expenses. Chafing at society's restrictions on women, she grudgingly accepts an offer to be a typist for the Prime Minister. She was qualified to be a private secretar ...more

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Aug 12, 2019 Roxann rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, goodreads-giveaway

From the cover: London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street. Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest me ...more

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