Review: The Paris Spy

The Paris Spy

By Susan Elia MacNeal

Published: August 8, 2017

Maggie Hope has come a long way since serving as a typist for Winston Churchill. Now she’s working undercover for the Special Operations Executive in the elegant but eerily silent city of Paris, where SS officers prowl the streets in their Mercedes and the Ritz is draped with swastika banners. Walking among the enemy is tense and terrifying, and even though she’s disguised in chic Chanel, Maggie can’t help longing for home.

But her missions come first. Maggie’s half sister, Elise, has disappeared after being saved from a concentration camp, and Maggie is desperate to find her—that is, if Elise even wants to be found. Equally urgent, Churchill is planning the Allied invasion of France, and SOE agent Erica Calvert has been captured, the whereabouts of her vital research regarding Normandy unknown. Maggie must risk her life to penetrate powerful circles and employ all her talents for deception and spycraft to root out a traitor, find her sister, and locate the reports crucial to planning D-Day in a deadly game of wits with the Nazi intelligence elite.

My review:

At the end of the last book, Maggie used her connections to find a way onto a plane to France. Maggie wants to find her sister Elise and rescue Agent Calvert and retrieve the information she had collected. Also newly arrived in France are her friends (and fellow spies) Sarah and Hugh who have their own mission to accomplish. Unfortunately there is a mole in their midst which makes the situation even more dangerous.

The Paris Spy is a fast paced mystery with some unexpected twists and edge of your seat moments. I did figure out early on who the traitor was but that didn't lessen my reading experience. Like in the other books in the series there are real historical figures like Winston Churchill and Coco Chanel. I really didn't like her at all. She may have been stylish but she was also a Nazi collaborator. It was fascinating to get more insight into all the preparations that went into planning the invasion of Normandy. There is also an interesting discussion about espionage and the expending of lives for the greater good.

One thing I noticed with this book is that with the growing cast of characters, the individual stories weren't as impactful at times. I was riveted by what was going on with Hugh and Sarah though. Elise's story also ties in with Maggie as we find out where she is hiding now and what she has been up to. I still cared about all the returning characters but there were some things that I felt detracted from the main action happening in Paris. The ending is something of a cliffhanger however so I'm curious to see what is going to happen to Maggie next. It is going to be a long wait till the next novel! Overall I liked this newest installment in the Maggie Hope mystery series. 

Note: I received an ARC for review purposes courtesy of the publisher and Edelweiss