Y. S. Lee

This is the debut novel in the Mary Quinn mystery series aimed at a YA audience. Written in an accessible style, it is a nice fast read with enjoyable insights into London of the time.

Set in 1850s Victorian England, this is the on-going story of a teenaged girl rescued from certain death (for thievery) by a secret organization that believes women have more to offer the world than being maids or teachers. Mary Quinn is clever, fierce, and ambitious. These qualities are honed and channelled at Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. The goal is that Mary will become an Agent or spy in service to the needs of the School’s “clients”. Performing discrete investigative services is how, in part, the school is funded. It is not made clear who these clients are or why they entrust such delicate work to the women’s school. (Presumably we will find out in the subsequent books…!) The point is well made that women as servants (maids, companions, governesses, etc) are almost invisible and, all women regardless of station, are never suspected of being any threat.

Once Mary “graduates” from the School, her first assignment has her pose as a companion to a wealthy, spoiled daughter of a well-to-do merchant. The characters in the household are well-drawn and we are quickly engaged with Mary in trying to decipher the machinations and hidden agendas. Told primarily from Mary’s point-of-view, we feel the real peril she puts herself in and that provides an enjoyable frisson of suspense that carries throughout the novel. There is also some light romance that doesn’t bog down the plot or the pacing.

The mystery at the heart of the book has the believability of history. Once the main plot is resolved there are intriguing loose ends regarding Mary’s past that are left to tantalize us. I suggest you have The Body at the Tower (Book #2) handy to satisfy your curiosity.… (more)

This is the third in the Mary Quinn series, set seven months after the second book.

It is 1860 and we find Mary assigned as a housemaid to the home of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. It seems there have been several petty thefts and, while Her Majesty wants to get to the bottom of it, she does not want a fuss made.

As an experienced graduate of the Agency, Mary is clever, resourceful, and ambitious. Frustratingly, after seven weeks on the job, she is no further ahead in finding the thief. Just as she is about to leave the case, Mary is drawn into a more serious event involving the royal heir. Prince Bertie was present at the murder of a nobleman friend while both were where they should not have been. What she eventually finds out is shocking and causes her to make several life-altering decisions.

Meanwhile, heir apparent Prince Bertie’s melancholic behaviour over the last few months has been concerning to the Queen; and, there is ultra-secret sewer work being performed under Buckingham Palace. Coincidentally, who should be in charge of this particular engineering project?

These four threads are not developed equally well. There is too much going on – petty thefts, the nobleman’s murder, Prince Bertie’s behaviour, the sewer work, Mary’s search for her past, her relationship with James Easton – and they don’t tie together smoothly, including a reimagining of Queen Victoria as Regina ex machina. The sewer “tunnel mystery” of the title is slight and feels a bit forced, particularly in its resolution.

This book, out of the three in the series, most clearly show its YA roots – two of the crimes are serious, involving complex political themes, but are treated too superficially, with implausibly tidy endings. There was more effort spent on Mary’s character development and deliberations about her options for her future.

The book read like the end of a trilogy, providing closure to many issues and circumstances. Therefore, the tension in this book comes not, as in the previous two, from the mysteries themselves but from “knowing” this is the third book in a trilogy, so anything could happen to the main characters.

The book makes use of our knowledge of the time period and the two royal characters - Queen Victoria, and Prince Bertie, after whom the Edwardian era was named. He was known to have a tremendous appetite for pleasure – smoking, horseracing, drinking, adultery. He is still 41 years away from becoming King Edward VII, and one year before the death of his father, Prince Albert.

Mary confronts her past a bit in the second book (The Body at the Tower) regarding her half-Chinese heritage. In this book, there is a deeper exploration and confrontation that takes up a larger percentage of the novel and gives interesting insight into the precarious position of people who were "passing" in that society.

The “side story” about Prince Bertie’s behaviour is used to highlight the powerlessness, helplessness, and dependent nature of female servants to the good manners and proper behaviour of their employers, the hypocritical emphasis on having a “good character” in their servants though they themselves can get away with much more. The series is not so dark that we have any doubt as to how this plot diversion will end. Therefore, it feels forced and doesn’t add to the story. The distraction would have been put to better use in fleshing out one of the other plots.

In the division between plot and character development, the first book skewed strongly towards plot, the second book was more balanced between the two, and this book skews strongly towards character, to the detriment of the various mystery plots. Of the four plot threads, I felt the plot of the title is the weakest.

Even though we know our resourceful heroine will land on her feet, how she gets there and the surprising twists and turns along the way make for a good read.

The emerging romance between Mary and James Easton is the most fun part of the book. It shows how a well-balanced relationship between two strong characters can become deep and caring. Lee needs to be careful not to sacrifice a strong plot to a series of polemics on the plight of the working classes in 1860s London.

The next in the series is Rivals in the City, and I am anxious to see how things evolve for the resourceful couple.


Rating: 4 out of 5 for character development; overall 3 out of 5 due to weakness of mysteries/plots
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This is the second in the Mary Quinn YA mystery series.

The premise of the series, set in 1850s Victorian England, is that women, particularly in the servant class, are almost invisible to high society, and women in general, regardless of station, are never suspected of being any real threat. This makes them perfectly suited to take positions (maids, companions, governesses, etc.) in which they can make discreet inquiries and from which they can observe and investigate without arousing suspicion. Mary Quinn, rescued by and trained in the secretive investigative agency housed in Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, is clever, fierce, and ambitious.

Lee continues Mary's story six months after the last book (A Spy in the House) left off. This second book deals with a bricklayer on a job site falling to his death under suspicious circumstances. Mary’s assignment is to infiltrate the building site for Big Ben (the clock tower of the title) and gather information. As an 18-year-old female of small stature, she can pass, with some effort, as a young boy of 12, and presents herself as a dogsbody to the job site’s foreman. Was the death truly an accident? Or, is there something more sinister going on?

The story is told primarily from Mary’s point of view. Through her eyes we get a vivid description of London in the 1850s, from the relative opulence of a hot bath to the abject squalor and desperate working conditions of the labour classes. This peek into the realities of life at that time was very interesting and added to the richness of the story.

The mystery has a clean, well-woven plot. There are no cheats and the resolution is satisfying. The characters are vividly drawn and capture our interest. We see the return of an old character, and are introduced to an engaging new one (whom I hope will appear in the next book!). The occasional use of period terminology (“a box of lucifers” = matches) also adds interest.

Quinn is a strong, intelligent, and resourceful female protagonist. Written with integrity, Lee has her experience suitable levels of uncertainty and indecision when she is confronted with making tough choices. Though aimed at a YA audience, this book has enough story that it will hold an adult’s interest.

As with the first book, I burned through the book in one sitting and couldn’t wait to pick up the next in the series (The Traitor in the Tunnel) to see what new adventure Mary will get into! A great, fun read.
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