OH MY GOD, this was easily one of the most ridiculous mysteries I have ever read. I don't even know where to start--I think I have to bullet point it.
- What is the protocol for writing a book where the current Queen of England is a major character? Is it like a law that her fictional self has to be insanely clever, brave, and kind? It's a little bit much. 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth is perfect in every way.
- Maggie Hope is kind of annoying in this one--she willfully ignores information b/c she's angry, and she frankly is not that good of a spy.
- Don't even get me started on the romance stuff.
- Props for upfront feminism and a prominent gay Jewish character.
- The plot here is way too convoluted, involving lots of suspicious people and murders and spies and Germans determined to put the pro-Nazi Duke of Windsor (the guy who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson) back on the throne. Also it involves polygamy, but that's kind of a side thing (and also a spoiler, I guess).
- I wish I was an editor--there were several parts that just needed to be toned down a couple notches. Exclamation points should be used sparingly in fiction. All books would be better if I was fixing their grammar.
- This book ends with not one, but two cliffhangers. One is obvious, the other completely nutbars. I can't decide if I'll read the third book in this series that just came out, or not. I am kind of curious to see where on earth MacNeal is going to go, but I also can foresee a lot of predictable melodrama.
"If I _were_ fixing their grammar." Subjunctive tense.
ReplyDeleteNice burn, anonymous! You caught me--my grammar also needs an editor. But I AM awesome at commas. Maybe I could be hired just for punctuation.
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