Set during the early days of the Battle of Britain, Edgar finalist Weaver's excellent sequel to 2021's A Peculiar Combination continues the adventures of Electra "Ellie" McDonnell and her uncle Mick, who have eschewed safe cracking in favor of more legitimate work. From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association.
Let's hope this expertise-and-romance-filled series continues for a very long time. Ellie is wonderfully resourceful and divinely funny. Ellie narrates, in a witty, matter-of-fact way, filling us in about picking locks, using her contacts with shady antiques dealers and fences to find the mysterious clock, and coping with the myriad privations of living in London during the war. As Ellie and Major Ramsey investigate a possible spy ring, using shadowing, impersonation, and Ellie's contacts in the London underworld, the fast-paced plot alternates between scary and comic. Ellie's examination of the victim's bracelet and belongings yields a spying device and a key to a wind-up clock. The lock that Ellie is under orders to pick is on a bracelet on the arm of a drowned woman, who either leaped or was pushed into the Thames. In this thoroughly ingenious blend of rom-com and spy cozy, Ellie, who was introduced, along with her locksmith uncle, in A Peculiar Combination (2021), works largely solo here, under orders from a man to whom she's desperately attracted, the devastatingly handsome and excruciatingly proper Major Ramsey. Ldquo Safecracking for King and Country" is the motto of reformed safecracker/locksmith/thief Ellie McDonnell, who has been recruited (under threat of imprisonment) by British military intelligence during WWII and assigned to break open any container that might hold Nazi secrets. It's clear this woman was involved in espionage, but whose side was she on? Who was she reporting to? And who wanted her dead?"- more A woman's body has been found floating in the Thames, with a bracelet locked onto her wrist, and a cameo locket attached to it. So when Major Ramsey turns up unannounced with another job, she can't say no. What she does miss is the challenge of unlocking an impossible code and the adrenaline rush that comes from being somewhere she shouldn't.
, Ellie must admit she doesn't miss breaking and entering as much as she might have thought. It's true that the straight-laced Major Ramsey didn't give them much choice, but still. After years of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor-well, to themselves, anyway-Ellie McDonnell and her family have turned over a new leaf as they help the government's war effort. "The second in the Electra McDonnell series from Edgar-nominated author Ashley Weaver, The Key to Deceit, is a delightful World War II mystery filled with spies, murder, romance, and wit.
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