I really enjoy the premise of these detective stories. It's the mid 1800s in London. Our main character, Mary, is a detective working undercover from The Agency, which is known as Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. It's a bit far-fetched. This teen girl was plucked off the street from a life of crime and trained to be a sleuth in a time when women couldn't even appear in public alone. But...
These books are really a lot of fun. In The Body at the Tower, a man has fallen to his death from Big Ben's tower -- still under construction. So Mary poses as a boy and gets a job on the construction crew.
She gets in all kinds of close scrapes and daring situations. She always manages to come out on top. We do get to see James Easton again -- the romantic interest from the first book, A Spy in the House. And, the romance STILL doesn't sizzle.
I'm partial to historical fiction and I really enjoy detective stories, so The Body at the Tower probably couldn't miss. Yes, it has some flaws. Mary is VERY lucky a lot. But I'm totally entertained and get caught up in these quick little books. I would recommend you read A Spy in the House first to get Mary's background. Give them a try!
Published by Candlewick, 2010
eBook, purchased
352 pages
Rating: 4/5
I read the first in this series and liked it very much. I have been meaning to get back into it. Thank you for the review.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I read this series before, but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere. When I was younger, I was absolutely in love with those spy and detectives novels. Now, I love historical fiction. :) Guess I can still read all the books.
ReplyDeleteCindy @ In This World of Books..