Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having finished a trilogy of Winston Churchill’s life not too long ago, I was interested in seeing how a historical mystery set in World War II Britain would hold up in comparison. The historical details in “Mr. Churchill’s Secretary” are accurate, although I’m not sure the author did Churchill justice. (Although to be fair, I’m not sure that anyone can capture such a complex man with any accuracy.) The plot was interesting and well-paced, and the main characters were well developed, although the secondary characters could have been further fleshed out. I loved the main character’s strength and personality (and the fact that she was a mathematician). The tone was generally light and frothy.
Overall, the book was not necessarily written with the quality and depth of other historical mystery authors such as Sharon Penman, Priscilla Royal, or Sharan Newman. But for the first book in a series, it was well done, and I am certainly interested enough in the main character and the setting to try the second book in the series.