Susan Elia MacNeal

Based on true events and true people, this historical fiction tells the story of a mother and daughter transported from Brooklyn to California who become spies in the American Nazi movement in 1940. Veronica is a would be journalist who infiltrates the American Bund; Vi a housewife who attaches herself to the America First Committee. The book chronicles the many seditious plots of the Nazi sympathizers in Southern California and the women’s role in foiling some of them.

The writing is a show more bit simplistic, but it tells an important story. MacNeal’s rich descriptions of locations and fashions vividly evoke a by gone era. This was an engrossing read; I stayed up late to finish it because I couldn’t put it down.

There is so much here that parallels our present time. That the FBI initially was more concerned about Communists than Nazis really resonated with me. It seems so often now we hear politicians calling groups “communists” or “socialists” to scare people, but they do not call out the neo Nazis or white nationalists.

Veronica and Vi are shocked by a group of Americans plotting treason against their own government; the group’s plan is to take it over if Roosevelt is elected and make the US a Christian nation. They want to relegate women to a position where their entire world is husband, family, children, home. After what we have seen in this country in the last six years, it is not so much shocking as part of our newsfeeds.

In the past few years, I have read quite a few novels that center around the rise of Nazi Germany. I think it is no coincidence that so many have been written and look at them as cautionary tales for our time. Especially when we now see Nationalism as a term used to camouflage anti democracy movements with hate and prejudice as their base. As one of the characters says, we must “stop the spread of lies that feed their fears.“

As incredulous as some of the heinous activities of the fifth column in this book might seem, reading the author’s notes validates their authenticity. show less

First Line: The midday summer sun in Lisbon was dazzling and harsh.

Adolph Hitler is determined to conquer England, and a plot is set in motion to get King George VI and his family out of the way so the much more amenable Duke and Duchess of Windsor can assume the throne. In the mean time Maggie Hope, recently promoted to MI-5 from Winston Churchill's secretarial pool, has washed out of the physical part of her training in Scotland. Sent back to London, she is dismayed when she learns that show more she's to go to Windsor Castle to be the math tutor to fourteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth-- until she's told of both the plot and the fact that the young royal's life may very well be in danger.

Her first day in Windsor Castle doesn't bode well. The place is war-time austere with many of its furnishings and treasures packed away for safekeeping. The castle is huge, cold, damp and drafty with endless corridors that make getting lost easy. When Maggie finally finds the dining room that evening, she's given a dressing-down because she isn't properly attired, and the ladies-in-waiting who have the rooms closest to hers are a gossiping, judgmental lot.

Fortunately the princesses are much easier to deal with, and Maggie does find a person or two with whom to become friends. She's going to need all the help she can get because hardly any time passes at all before it's very clear that someone does mean the royal family harm. Maggie needs every bit of her quick wits to protect her young charge.

I really enjoyed the first Maggie Hope mystery, Mr. Churchill's Secretary, but this second book in the series grabbed me by the eyeglasses and wouldn't let me go until I'd turned the last page. Maggie still has her math smarts and quick mind for codes as well as her spirit. When standing her ground with her MI-5 superior or giving the dragon in the Windsor Castle dining room a piece of her mind or even when she tells her new handler what a waste of space he is, it's hard not to cheer aloud for a young woman who refuses to be treated as anything less than an equal.

It was just as much fun to read about Maggie and her interactions with the young princesses: Margaret theatrical and a typical younger sister, and Elizabeth, serious and conscious of her future role in life, yet still a teenager writing letters to a certain young man serving in the Royal Navy-- Prince Philip of Greece.

MacNeal has the knack of using real-life people as characters in her books and making them every bit as interesting as her fictional characters. There's nothing wooden or dusty or historical about Churchill or King George or the young princesses. Touring the corridors and dungeons of Windsor Castle is a treat, and so is seeing the ancient residence decked out for Christmas, but the best part of the book is the ending. Not everything about it is completely plausible, but it's so much fun that I don't really care. I refuse to say anything more except that I'd love to have Queen Elizabeth read Princess Elizabeth's Spy and let us know her thoughts about it!

The last chapter of the book sets up the third book in this series perfectly, and I can't wait until it's published. Maggie Hope has shown herself to be one smart woman. When told she's a washout on the physical part of her training, she incorporates running and other strengthening exercises into her daily routine. However, she is a young woman, and-- unless it has something to do with codes and cyphers-- she tends to think with her heart instead of her head. Will she have learned anything after protecting Princess Elizabeth? Only time (and the next book) will tell! show less

The good thing about this book: the title.

Everything else is not worth the bother.

Do not be mislead by the publicist's review who promises that this is another Jacqueline Winspear or Anne Perry. Not in this life!

Rather than Maisie Dobbs, what we have here is Nancy Drew -- and yet, even that does disservice to likeable Ms. Drew, who as I recall, was always straightforward, unpretentious, and just plain fun. Rather this is Nancy Drew gone very bad.

The writing is amateurish and gratingly show more in-authentic. This is someone who has done "some" research on World War II and is champing on the bit to strut what she knows. She doesn't know quite enough, though, so it becomes just plain embarrassing at times. (Call it the historical equivalent of name-dropping, and not much more, and you would have it about right.)

Throughout, there is the added annoyance of the wanna-be Brit bleeding all over the dialogue, as she weaves in and out of Americanisms interspersed with stock English expressions. I laughed out loud in several places for she falls just short of including such stereotypical banalities as "Pip, Pip, old Boy" -- or some such nonsense. It grates like nails on chalkboard.

The plot is bizarrely thin, yet labyrinthine. I'm sure that sentence doesn't make any sense, but neither does the novel, for indeed it is an apt description. There is no plot to speak of, other than the stock-in-trade wanna-be-spy-breaks-code-and-becomes-a-heroine. (Even Nancy Drew had more meaningful sub-text!)

The mystery of it all is indeed a mystery: a young woman is murdered within the first few pages of the novel. Then, we hear nothing more about it/her for 250 more pages, other than Oh, yes, that poor Miss Snyder. ?????? and then snap, crackle, pop, it's all resolved in a she-was-in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time scenario. The rest of the novel is filler from a handful of Churchill's speeches, and run-of-the-mill, overused plots and characters from war-time pulp fiction.

It is amazing to me what gets published, and what stands for literature. I see there's a whole series from this author. One can only hope it gets better from here, but I won't be following up to find out. show less

The year is 1940. But it feels like it could be from the current times. “There’s a real threat to our democracy, one that could – faster than you think – turn our country into a totalitarian dictatorship.” The story is fictional based on real characters.

Veronica was a prized journalism graduate, groomed by her boyfriend who worked for The New York Times. When his wife, from a prominent publishing family, found out about the affair, Veronica’s new job at Mademoiselle magazine no show more longer existed. In fact, she was told there wouldn’t be any position for her in NYC with any publication.

Her Uncle Walter was in town for her graduation ceremony. He asked her about a future with a husband and children. Veronica wasn’t interested. She wanted to be like Martha Gellhorn who enjoyed being a war reporter in Europe. Soon she and her mother, Vi, found themselves traveling to Southern California, the “land of dreams.” They would move into Walter’s Santa Monica beach house – rent free -- which happened to be vacant.

After stumbling trying to find work, both Veronica and Vi found themselves in situations that were ideal to spy on an organized group that was promoting Nazism. They would be working in two different ways for the FBI. Veronica would need to look like a “girl flirting with fascism.” She would have to grow her blond hair longer, wear lots of red and black dresses, have braids in her hair, wear a cross necklace and wish to marry with at least four children. While both undercover roles were dangerous, the plot didn’t feel as intense as it could have been.

However, the author did an impressive amount of research and this book opened my eyes to the activity of political extremes in the 1940s. I wasn’t aware that in 1939, there were 20,000 protestors in Madison Square Garden in support of Nazi Germany. I had no idea about the Bund, Silver Skirts, Copperheads that were trying to change the leadership in the US. Plus, the story made me think about how the past relates to the present times with information that is important for everyone to read. Vi told Veronica: “Do you think an eventual book, telling your story, might help people understand what’s happening in America.” Well, yes. That’s what this is all about. “No one believed Hitler’s Brownshirts could seize control of Germany in 1933. They did.”

My thanks to Susan Elia MacNeal, Bantam Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with an expected release date of September 20, 2022. show less