JULY 2022 - AudioFile
A spirited performance by Alison Larkin enlivens the second Electra McDonnell mystery. It’s 1940 in London—before the Blitz. Locksmiths and jewel thieves Ellie and her Uncle Mick are coerced into working for Major Ramsey rather than going to prison. The body of a woman found in the Thames is wearing a cuff bracelet requiring unlocking. The Major calls upon Ellie and her less-than-legal skills to unlock it. Larkin captures Ellie’s smart-alecky attitude to perfection, along with her cheerful, chirpy comments. Larkin’s voices for the Major and Ellie’s friend Felix sound decidedly masculine. When they discover a tiny camera hidden in the bracelet, they realize they’re dealing with a network of German spies who are photographing potential bombing sites. Then the bombing begins. Totally enjoyable listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 03/14/2022
Set during the early days of the Battle of Britain, Edgar finalist Weaver’s excellent sequel to 2021’s A Peculiar Combination continues the adventures of Electra “Ellie” McDonnell and her uncle Mick, who have eschewed safe cracking in favor of more legitimate work. When a young woman’s body washes up on the banks of the Thames with a bracelet locked to her wrist, Ellie is recruited by Major Ramsey, an impassive and exceedingly handsome British intelligence officer, to remove the bracelet from the corpse’s wrist. Together, Ellie and the major soon realize the dead woman was working as a spy for the Germans. Meanwhile, Ellie works with Felix Lacey, a longtime friend and possible romantic partner, to undercover the secrets behind Ellie’s mother’s decades-old conviction for murder. Weaver does a sensational job of evoking 1940 London and populates the story with endearing characters, none more so than Ellie, who’s gutsy, smart, and completely unwilling to be outmaneuvered or left behind when danger presents itself. Readers will hope to see a lot more of Ellie. Agent: Ann Collette, Rees Literary. (May)
From the Publisher
One of New York Post's "Best New Books to Read"
"[A] fast-paced plot . . . Ellie is wonderfully resourceful and divinely funny. Let's hope this expertise-and-romance-filled series continues for a very long time."—Booklist (starred)
"Excellent... Weaver does a sensational job of evoking 1940 London and populates the story with endearing characters... Readers will hope to see a lot more of Ellie."—Publishers Weekly (starred)
"Competing romances, slippery spies, and the horrors of the Blitz combine in an exciting mystery/adventure."—Kirkus Reviews
"The setting of London during World War II comes to life in this absorbing plot with its fresh take on spying, murder and war on the home front. Each of the characters is well-developed and endearing, and Ellie's sharp wit and criminal expertise play brilliantly against the by-the-book persona of Major Ramsey and the suave, slightly felonious leanings of Felix."—Shelf Awareness
"The characters all shine . . . If you love history and mystery combined with a bit of irony and wry humor, you will enjoy this book."—Historical Novel Society
"As this is only the second in her series, Weaver opens the door to garnering many fans as she develops her characters and possible romances travel between Ellie and the major or Felix. It’s easy to get wrapped up in Weaver’s storytelling skills as she carefully unfolds her story."—New York Journal of Books
"The mysteries, danger, and emotional hills and valleys that are life in wartime will keep readers rapt."—First Clue
Library Journal
12/01/2021
In a series starter from the ever-popular Armstrong, homicide detective Mallory is in 2019 Edinburgh when she experiences A Rip Through Time and winds up in one of the city's alleyways in 1869, inhabiting the body of strangled-if-not-quite-dead housemaid Catriona Thomson and soon hunting for a killer (50,000-copy first printing). In Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage, the redoubtable sleuth and her English-village neighbors fail in their attempt to befriend standoffish newcomer Crispin Windle until they discover the ruins of a Victorian woolen mill—and the graves of children who worked there, whom they seek to identify (30,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July 2021). In Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride, crusty but beloved widow Nonna Maria—who lives on the isle of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples and was inspired by the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Carcaterra's grandmother—intervenes when a young bride-to-be declares that she's afraid of her fiancé. In Haines's Lady of Bones, Mississippi-based Sarah Booth Delaney of the Delaney Detective Agency is attending a party alit with jack-o-lanterns when she's approached by a woman seeking her vanished daughter, who has been investigating the disappearance of young women in New Orleans every Halloween for the last five years (40,000-copy first printing). The internationally best-selling author of the "Dark Iceland" and "Hulda" series, Jónasson sets his new standalone during an Icelandic blizzard, with four frantic friends sheltering in an abandoned hunting lodge and facing a reignited tragedy that likely makes them wish they were all Outside (50,000-copy first printing). In Klingborg's Wild Prey, Inspector Lu Fei of the Chinese Police travels to a remote region of Myanmar to find a missing 15-year-old girl in a case involving the illegal trafficking of exotic animals (50,000-copy first printing). In Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour, Lupica assigns PI Sunny Randall the thankless task of investigating actress friend Melanie Joan Hall when Melanie's manager turns up dead, her bank account looks to be wiped out, and details of her past suddenly seem more imagined than real. In Paretsky's Overboard, a seriously injured teenage girl discovered by V.I. Warshawski on Lake Michigan's rocky shore subsequently vanishes from the hospital, and the iconic detective must chase down a monstrous conspiracy with pandemic-ridden Chicago as backdrop (100,000-copy first printing). Pursuing a massive drugs-and-weapons shipment being shepherded across the U.S.-Mexican border by former cops with the warning "You talk, you die" written on their bodies, Patterson/Paetro stalwart Sgt. Lindsay Boxer suddenly has 22 Seconds to decide what her fate will be. Second in the new series from librarian Weaver, who launched her writing career with the delightful Amory Ames mysteries, The Key to Deceit has breaker-and-enterer Ellie McDonnell again approached by stuffed-shirt good-guy Major Ramsey in World War II London: he wants her to discover which side the female spy found bobbing in the Thames was on (40,000-copy first printing).
JULY 2022 - AudioFile
A spirited performance by Alison Larkin enlivens the second Electra McDonnell mystery. It’s 1940 in London—before the Blitz. Locksmiths and jewel thieves Ellie and her Uncle Mick are coerced into working for Major Ramsey rather than going to prison. The body of a woman found in the Thames is wearing a cuff bracelet requiring unlocking. The Major calls upon Ellie and her less-than-legal skills to unlock it. Larkin captures Ellie’s smart-alecky attitude to perfection, along with her cheerful, chirpy comments. Larkin’s voices for the Major and Ellie’s friend Felix sound decidedly masculine. When they discover a tiny camera hidden in the bracelet, they realize they’re dealing with a network of German spies who are photographing potential bombing sites. Then the bombing begins. Totally enjoyable listening. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-02-05
It's 1940 in London, and a family of locksmiths with a sideline in theft pulls off another job for the Crown.
When Electra McDonnell and her family got caught trying to steal jewels, their choice was prison or working for the handsome, enigmatic Major Ramsey. Ellie’s attracted to the dashing aristocrat, but so far their relationship has remained professional and sometimes antagonistic. Ramsey wants Ellie’s Uncle Mick but has to settle for Ellie when he needs to remove a locked bracelet from the arm of a woman found dead in the Thames. Unlocking the bracelet is easy, and Ellie’s able to provide some insight into Myra Fields’ station in life from her clothing. A search reveals a camera in the bracelet, a clock key, and a bag of jewels hidden in the lining of a sable coat. Ellie’s first job with Ramsey—in A Peculiar Combination (2021)—gave her a taste for danger, and she’s more than willing to help uncover an espionage ring that’s taking photos of juicy targets for the Germans. To Ramsey’s dismay, Ellie calls on family friend and romantic interest Felix Lacey for help with a crooked pawnshop owner. Family contacts help track down the source of the jewels and lead to a boardinghouse where Myra lived. Ellie, with Ramsey masquerading as her husband, pretends to be Myra’s cousin in order to look for clues. Once the German bombing commences, they push even harder to roll up the dangerous spy ring even as Ellie continues to look into her mother’s conviction for murdering her father, a crime she denied to the day she died.
Competing romances, slippery spies, and the horrors of the Blitz combine in an exciting mystery/adventure.
