Get ready for a pulse-pounding, laugh-out-loud ride through 1960s London as Maggie Flynn, unexpected MI5 operative and single mum, unravels the intelligence agency’s most treacherous secrets.
Maggie Flynn isn’t your typical 1960s mum.
She’s a spy, an unsuspecting operative for MI5, stalking London’s streets in myriad disguises.
Widowed and balancing her clandestine career with raising a Beatles-mad teenage daughter, Maggie finds comfort and purpose in her profession – providing a connection to her late husband, whose own covert past only surfaced after his death.
But Maggie’s world spins out of control when a chance encounter with a mysterious Russian agent triggers a chilling revelation: he knew her husband. And what’s worse, the agent suspects someone on home soil betrayed him.
As Maggie searches for answers, she’ll question everyone – and everything – she thought she could trust. In the murky and perilous world of espionage, can she outsmart those determined to keep her silenced?
CW – This is an era when LGBTQIA+ relationships were publicly taboo and could be used to blackmail you.
People smile sweetly as they walk past, and you can see it on their faces: Ah, bless the old biddy knitting in the park. Perhaps she’s lonely?
Or perhaps this old biddy’s eyes are scouring every inch of the perimeter, picking out each person who walks through its black iron gates, with or without a dog or child, barely looking at the wool working its way back and forth. Tick, tack.
James Bond and George Smiley really should learn to knit.
Dear Ms. Robotham,
When I saw this cover I investigated it immediately. Then I finally zeroed in on the author’s name and thought, “Is it? It must be.” And indeed it is you! Instead of the Mandy Robotham WWII-ish books I’ve already read though, now we’re in the swinging 60s of London with a heroine and her besties fighting the good fight for justice, morality, and the British way of life.
The film-makers would have us believe that espionage is a glamorous business, all first-class air travel, caviar and champagne. The reality: missing the last bus home, stale fruit buns and cold tea.
Middle aged Maggie Flynn works for MI5 though not as a glamorous spy like James Bond. Instead she puts in rugged and sometimes boring days keeping an eye on those she’s told to watch. A large bag full of disguises can turn her into a harmless 60 year old grannie even as she sometimes has to fling herself onto moving buses to keep her target in sight. But one unexpected babysitting job blows her world wide open and to get to the bottom of what she discovers, she and her friends will go up against people trained in spycraft and deception.
Even now, I find it hard to admit that the thrill was intoxicating, my being a part of it. Of something. It was at that point I began to fully understand Davy and his need to work towards a better world, the germ that had been firmly planted in his war years.
I adore the family feel of much of the book. Maggie does indeed have a family – her mother Gilda with her interesting style of home decor (and Maggie knows how her mother’s free spirits were probably quashed by 40s and 50s expectations of women) and teen daughter Libby who is gasping for the latest fashions and tickets to The Beatles. Maggie’s other family are the stable of Donkeys who trudge along day in and day out keeping watch on not only the Soviets but also fellow Brits because anyone caught out doing hanky panky is at risk of enemy agents blackmailing them. Best to ferret out and dispose of these people yourself.
‘Yes,’ I say. It’s only my intense curiosity that beats back the tide of unease. ‘An accident, they said.’
Yuri scoffs audibly, and even though we are a distance from the back door of the house, his eyes flick left and right. ‘And I thought it was only the Stasi and the KGB who were expert at those kinds of accidents.’
What she thinks is just an unusual job sitting with a Soviet defector in a safe house until the interrogators arrive – then making tea on demand with no thanks – becomes much more. Maggie is thrown into a tailspin. What does this agent really know about her dead husband and how can she go about confirming what Davy was after before he was murdered?
How in the hell do I prove what Yuri has said? And can I? Where to go first?
Maggie is no fool and listened during the perfunctory spy craft lessons she and her fellow Watchers are given. She’s not an agent like the smart boys upstairs with their public school and Oxbridge educations but neither has she become a traitor like the recently uncovered ones. One more major spy cockup and the public might demand that Those in Charge answer for these mistakes.
‘I can’t,’ I manage between set teeth. ‘I can’t let it go.’ For the first time today, I think I might cry. She’s right, of course. It won’t bring Davy back, but Vivien doesn’t know the full story and I can’t risk her safety until I know more. Knowledge is power – it’s what the security services worldwide are built on – but it’s also a heavy burden, and a cosh that can be turned back on the user. Equally, in uncovering Davy’s motive, I may truly understand his duplicity. Finally, I might be able to forgive him.
What Maggie discovers shakes her to the core and confirms her belief that her husband stood for decency. She’s going to finish what he started come hell or high water. But those whom she’s up against aren’t going down without a nasty fight. Luckily Maggie’s got something even better than good associates. She’s got great friends who are willing to help her out. Still, it’s not going to be easy and I was hanging on for the ride and wild trips around London and the countryside. It’s too bad for the Villains that they dismiss what the Little People can do when roused and willing to fight.
‘Trust,’ he says emphatically. ‘Loyalty and decency. I know those are fairly alien concepts to you boys, but perhaps you could try them on for size? Otherwise, these negotiations are at an end.’
Frank is fantastic (and I love the names for his two cats). Mystery Person is certainly a surprise though to be fair an identifying clue is provided. I pictured Vivian as a more sober version of Patsy Stone, and Yuri – I wanted more of Yuri who has the courage of his convictions. Grounding Maggie though are her loving but sometimes exasperating mother and her such-a-teen daughter Libby who inspires Maggie, and she knows Davy too, to fight even more for what she knows is the right thing to do. B+
~Jayne
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Jayne
Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there’s no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.
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