The Prisoner in the Castle: A Maggie Hope Mystery

Several strangers are stranded on an island, totally cut off from the world due to a storm. Suddenly they are killed off one by one. Sound familiar? If Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None doesn’€™t immediately come to mind, you really can’€™t call yourself a true mystery reader. Though the comparison is obvious, Susan MacNeal’s eighth installment in the Maggie Hope Mystery series, The Prisoner in the Castle, quickly makes the differences clear.

Based on a real-life order for SOE agents who needed to be kept out of the field during WWII, Killoch Castle is the perfect place for Maggie Hope to be sent to while her superiors decide whether she can ever be trusted not to divulge the war secrets she knows. She and the other agents try to make the best of their situation, but when they start to die in mysterious ways, tension runs high and order begins to break down.

Though this is rather late in a series, surprisingly this novel works quite well as a stand-alone novel. If this is the first Maggie Hope book you pick up, I am sure it will certainly not be your last! Susan MacNeal has a true gift for description and suspense.