Exclusive interview with author Susan Elia MacNeal and a review of the second in her mystery series about Maggie Hope spy for the British during WWII
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“The idea came to me when I was visiting the UK,” says Princess Elizabeth’s Spy author Susan Elia MacNeal. “My husband was working in London, (as Bear on Bear in the Big Blue House, a popular kids TV show on Disney Channel UK), I was able to spend some time in London, and one night when we were out at a pub with some British friends, one said to me, “You know, you might want to think about going to the Cabinet War Rooms.”
Princess Elizabeth’s Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery is the second in this series. The mystery is light and Maggie is engaging, but not skilled in deducing who the bad guys are. A bit more backstory in this second novel in the series would not have gone amiss. The most interesting characters are the two princesses. It would have been nice to have them in the story a bit more. MacNeal’s descriptions of WWII and Windsor Castle are very depicted well and you can see what she’s describing.
Maggie Hope’s failed spy school because she’s not physically fit enough. But when a plot to kill the king and heir Princess Elizabeth is exposed Maggie is chosen to pose as a maths tutor to help protect the heir to the British throne. While there she needs to discern who the German agents are that have infiltrated the castle.
“The Cabinet War Rooms, now called the Churchill War Rooms, are part of the underground bunker that Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his staff worked from during the Blitz,” says MacNeal. “Being in the space inspired the first novel, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary.”
“I started writing the first book in 2000, and I had a number of concerns,” says MacNeal. “The first was the technical difficulty of writing about both a different era and a different country. It was intimidating, to say the least. However, not only did I do enormous amounts of research, but I was lucky enough to be able to speak with many Blitz survivors. I was even able to correspond with Mrs. Elizabeth Layton Nel, one of Winston Churchill’s actual wartime secretaries.”
“For Princess Elizabeth’s Spy, I had a wonderful time researching the town of Windsor and Windsor Castle,” says MacNeal. “One of the books I relied on was The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen’s Childhood by her Nanny, by Marion Crawford. She said working at Windsor Castle during the war was, “like living in a museum – and terribly cold in the winter”. King George and Queen Elizabeth were strict about rationing, so even the Princesses were limited to one egg per week, and the rest of the restrictions the British people lived through. A lot of the girls’ time was spent knitting for soldiers, and they could hear the German Messerschmitts and Heinkels fly by overhead, on their way to attack London.”
“I was able to use many books, including the one I already mentioned by Marion Crawford, the Princesses’ former nanny,” says MacNeal. “One thing I learned from her memoir was that Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and the royal staff really did use the Windsor Castle’s former dungeons as a bomb shelter. They brought down beds, books, food, and changes of clothes. There was even a small portable stove where people would make tea. I love the idea of everyone taking shelter in these ancient dungeons, but sitting in real chairs and having a proper cup of tea. Keep calm and carry on, indeed.”
“Princess Elizabeth’s Spy is the second book in the Maggie Hope Series, which began with Mr. Churchill’s Secretary,” says MacNeal. “The third book in the series, His Majesty’s Hope, is already written and is now being copyedited at Random House. It follows Maggie’s journey as a spy in Berlin. And I’m currently working on the yet-untitled book number four in the series, which will be set in Edinburgh and Arisaig, London, and Washington, D.C.”
MacNeal resides in New York.
Princess Elizabeth’s Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery author Susan Elia MacNeal. Trade Paperback, 384 pages, Publisher: Bantam (October 16, 2012), Language: English. ISBN: 9780553593624 $5.00
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