The Paris Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery

Susan Elia MacNeal continues the Maggie Hope Mystery series with number seven, The Paris Spy, and it doesn’t disappoint. Having started as Winston Churchill’s secretary, Maggie Hope has proven herself over and over as an asset to the British Government during World War II. In this novel, Maggie is working undercover in Paris in order to find another agent, Erica Calvert, who has gone missing with sand samples vital to the upcoming Normandy landing. While doing so, she is also trying to find her half-sister, Elise, a resistance fighter recently escaped from Germany.

Hope poses as Irishwoman Paige Kelly who is in Paris shopping for her wedding trousseau. While staying at the Ritz, she meets Coco Chanel, who takes her to the ballet where she sees two other undercover agents who are posing as a cellist and dancer with the ballet. Through them, she finds out that Erica has killed herself after being captured and tortured by the Germans rather than disclosing anything. Now possessing the samples, Maggie must not only escape and get them into Allied hands but also save her sister and a wounded English pilot.

Though not my favorite of the series, there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged and anticipating further adventures for our heroine, Maggie Hope.