Pick Up The Prisoner In The Castle (Maggie Hope, #8) Constructed By Susan Elia MacNeal Shared As Digital Copy
is the latest in a series, so if you haven't read the others you should start with the first.
I love the the Maggie Hope mysteries, about a woman who is a soy for Britain during World Warwho also gets caught up in murder mysteries.
Here, Maggie is detained on a remote Scottish island because she knows too much when other prisoners start being killed.
Maggie has to rely on her wits and skills to find the killer before becoming his or her next victim.
Really well researched and written and super suspenseful! The countrymanor murders And Then Their Were None plot diverts enough for this one stand on its own.
And if youve already been reading the Hope books, I think The Prisoner in the Castle will advance the series nicely.
Full review here: sitelink blogthe
All my reviews can be found on my blog: sitelink blog An inescapable island dooms all!
Maggie Hope finds herself in a dire situation in friendly territory.
Sequested on the remote Scottish island of Scara aka 'the cooler' and the 'Forbidden Island' by the Special Operations Executive for nebulous reasons, along with other rogue agents, things take a sinister turn.
Meanwhile Maggie's friends think she's on another mission, No one is aware of Maggie's incarceration, No one is looking for her, until Maggie's needed as a witness for a court case, and even then information is not forthcoming from SOE.
Her friends have to take other routes to suss out what's become of her,
Meanwhile, the inhabitants a rather motley crew, incarcerated for good and not good reasons of the island begin to meet with foul play.
The island becomes a death trap, and there is no way to leave, Reminiscent of Agatha Christie's 'Then There Were None', the tension ramps up as Maggie and her companions are left not knowing who to trust and what the end game is.
Another macabre story about the island and it's previous owner underscores the seclusion of the island, adding grist to the mill as the current inhabitants look to surviving.
I enjoyed this further Maggie 'dare doing' but was not as taken with this Hope novel as I have been with previous titles.
A NetGalley ARC
Ah book eight with Maggie Hope, Sad thing was Maggie really was not needed at all, She was just there to move the story forward, I had a hard time with this book,a castle full of spies being killed off one by one.
Not one of them could figure it before the books end and very blah ending This book just
did not do it for me.
I hope Maggie is back to her kick butt self in the next book, Really would like to see a show down between her and her mother at some point in the series.
Always enjoy a Maggie Hope story and this one was no exception, Thank you Net Galley for allowing me the opportunity to read this book before it is published.
The only downside to this good fortune is the wait will seem even longer for the next one in the series to come out.
Maggie, our heroine in these stories, is a strong character and author MacNeal stays true to her character through out the series.
I like how the book is laden with information about WWII and England's involvement in it from the SEO secret service/MIper se side of it.
I look forward to the next mission Maggie Hope is embroiled in, If you haven't read any of her books you have time to catch up, This book is another wonderful installment in the Maggie Hope series!
Maggie has been imprisoned on a remote Scottish island due to her knowledge of important war time happenings.
Shes not the only one either, Other prisoners are there for similar reasons, Either knowing to much or being a threat to the war effort,
Soon after another prisoner arrives on the island, murders begins to happen, First only seeming to be strange coincidences but as the numbers rise it seems there is a Nazi spy in their number.
Set to the tone of Agatha Christies And Then There Were None, Susan Elia MacNeal intrigues you right from the first page! Just when you think you know who done it you definitely dont!
Maggie Hope has quickly become my favorite female British spy and I cant wait to see where MacNeal will take us next on her next Maggie Hope book!
I was given this ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.
I wouldnt normally jump into a series on book, But a friend of mine has enjoyed this series and I got a chance to review this book through netgalley, so jump I did.
I was expecting more of a spy novel, but this is really a cozy mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie.
Maggie Hope is back from a spy mission and has been sent to a remote Scottish island, a sort of cooling off, almost prison type place for spies with issues.
And then one, by one, the dead bodies start piling up, But despite how quickly the deaths kept coming, I didnt feel any tension, This one just didnt draw me in, And what happens tends to be predictable, Yes, there are a few twists I didnt see coming, But nothing mind boggling. And I had correctly guessed who was picking everyone off, if not the reason,
A secondary storyline obviously dates back to the prior book, It adds some tension but i did feel at a bit of a loss not having the history.
This is an ok book but I wont be rushing to read the prior books,
My thanks to netgalley and Bantam for an advance copy of this book,
This was my first read of the author and this series, I picked the book up at a used book sale not realizing it wasin a series nothing on the print copy suggests it but dove in to read it anyway.
I mostly liked this, though it did read slow at parts and several times repeated information already explained by a character or in narration.
This is a closed room mystery where everyone suspects a killer among them, I imagine this setup might be a bit of a departure from the earlier books so I'd probably give the earlier books a chance.
The gothic, isolated Scottish castle was rather fun,
As for characters: Anna, a prisoner who is supposedly a welltrained spy, seemed anything but.
Syed and Quentin offer a bit of diversity, though content warning: some characters make racist judgements about Syed, most of which are acknowledged or refuted by Syed or other characters.
There's mention by a character of an Agatha Christie novel with a racist title, Looking back I suppose I can sense out a reason why the author added it but, . . Idk, seemed an odd choice,
hiding under spoiler tag content/trigger warning involving abuse: Maggie is a brave, educated, strong young woman who I have come to love through the series.
The ending of The Paris Spy was an unexpected cliffhanger and I was eagerly waiting for this installment, but unfortunately this was a disappointment.
Nothing really happens on the Island of Scarra where all these agents are isolated and imprisoned.
They start getting killed off one by one but and I thought Maggie would get an opportunity to investigate and find the killer, but thats not what happened.
Whatever she learned, she just stumbled upon by accident, I hoped atleast the story arc of the German Spy would be interesting, but it turned out to be quite anticlimactic.
None of my favorite characters seemed to have much to do here,
I would still probably continue this series because Maggie is a wonderful character but this book was definitely forgettable.
Maggie Hope is back! The Prisoner in the Castle is the next installment in the Maggie Hope Mystery series.
I have read many books in the Maggie Hope series and really enjoyed them,
Throughout her travels, Maggie Hope has acquired a lot of knowledge among other things and its this collection of knowledge that makes her a threat some believe.
It's these beliefs which have landed Maggie imprisoned in Killoch Castle on a remote Scottish island,
In The Prisoner in the Castle, Maggie Hope faces one of her greatest predicaments thus far, imprisonment in an isolated castle away from friends and family who don't know where she is.
Not only is she imprisoned but others around her are coming up dead, In true Maggie Hope style she has to use all the gifts and skills
she has to escape from her prison before she's next.
I really enjoy this series because Maggie Hope is resilient, bright and filled with mirth.
I received an advanced review copy ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review.
Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own, Ive been anxiously awaiting news of Maggie Hope, WWII secret agent for the British, after we were left hanging in THE PARIS SPY.
Thankfully, the newest chapter in this beloved series by Susan Elia MacNeal is as thrilling as thrilling can be!
In an ever so polished nod to the Grand Dame of Mystery, this harrowing tale finds Maggie confined to a remote Scottish Island with other agents who are knocked off.
. . one by one in some quite spectacular ways,
And oh my is our favorite spy in a jam! A top secret British agency holds her hostage.
Communication is prohibited, while gale force winds prevent escape, Who can Maggie trust Will she survive Will she ever earn her freedom Grab a great big goblet of wine for company, as you wont be able to let THE PRISONER go until the shocking end.
Cheers!
A tip of the tam to one of my fave authors, to Random House Publishing Group Ballantine, and to NetGalley for the advance copy.
Opinions are fully mine.
ThePrisonerInTheCastle NetGalley When looking for inspiration, one could hardly do better than Dame Agatha Christie, which is exactly what author Susan Elia MacNeal has done.
Her latest entry in the World War II era Maggie Hope series has looked to Christie's And Then There Were None for The Prisoner in the Castle's plot.
MacNeal even gives Christie's work a nod under its original title with Maggie referencing it,
In this incarnation of the classic plot, Maggie and other British agents have been exiled to a Scottish island, each for "going rogue" in some fashion, leaving their handlers to question their fitness for future missions.
Of course, Maggie has had good reason for her deviation from the rulesnot so much for some of the other agents who all have secrets that make them vulnerable.
Exile on an isolated Scottish island would be punishment enough in itself, but soon dead bodies begin piling up.
Amid a group of people who have all been trained to kill, the only thing that seems to eliminate a suspect is his or her own death.
A shaken Maggie has to look beyond the obvious to find the killer, even as a monster storm keeps help from arriving in time to prevent more deaths.
Back in England, Maggie's friends, who have assumed that she has been off on secret mission, begin to look for her at the behest of a police detective who needs her testimony to ensure the conviction of a vicious killer.
MacNeal creates considerable tension as rescue and death inch ever closer to Maggie,
MacNeal's books are meticulously researched and she weaves fascinating fact into her fiction, Maggie Hope is a stand out series,
Full DisclosureNet Gallery and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book.
This is my honest review,
.