“The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent” - Susan Elia MacNeal

 (Maggie Hope book 4)

💐 I skipped book 3 in this series for reasons detailed in my blog post for book 2; yet I always intended to pick up book 4 because MacNeal’s historical research is immaculate and I do love WW II era mysteries. While I have some plot quibbles with this series, Macneal’s characters are well developed - though as I grumbled in a prior post, not entirely likeable.

💐 It is 1941 and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover disregards MI6 warning of Japanese machinations of an attack on American interests. The US War Office and others ignored early warnings that the Japanese had their sights set on Pearl Harbor. I enjoyed all the background Macneal provides about the breakdown in US-Japan negotiation, the lack of a cohesive response to dire decrypts, the frequent miscommunication and occasional outright hostility between FDR, the Army, and Navy. What is clear is that men on both sides were hoping to avoid an all-out war between the two nations. 

💐The actual hours prior to the attack included a significant strategic blunder. The Japanese intended to follow the Geneva Convention with regards to their Pearl Harbor attack. However, the Japanese ambassador was late in delivering the Declaration of War in DC, and the Japanese Air Commander was early in launching the attack, having not factored in the International Date Line! At first his staff thought it was merely a 55 minute discrepancy, but it turned out to be an entire day. The War Declaration was dated 12/8 but the attack was carried out on 12/7. Meanwhile, Macneal writes “Mrs. Dorothy Edgars, Lieutenant Kramer’s secretary, who translated the decrypt revealing the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor on Friday, December 5, 1941, and was told by Kramer, ‘it could wait until Monday.’” 

💐 In TPMSA our girl Maggie is fighting off mental demons from her Berlin mission. The depressive cloud closes in on her often, and she struggles to fight it off. This novel is as much about a mystery she must crack, as it is about Maggie finding purpose and regrouping her shattered psyche.

💐 The parts of the story pertaining to Clara Hess are … holy personality disorder! Unless of course the N*zi agent is a superb actress. I honestly don’t trust her and don’t know what to think about this one. I definitely feel sympathy for Maggie on this count for sure.

💐 As she recuperates in Scotland, Maggie is involved in a MI5 investigation into the mysterious deaths of 3 ballerinas in Glasgow. Evidence suggests an unusual form of poisoning. Maggie begins to suspect a connection to horrifying government secrets, and wonders if these deaths could be in any way connected to the raging war. If she’s correct, the implications for civilian life could be devastating. TPMSA is my favorite in the series thus far; it’s a heady mix of murder mystery, espionage, and WWII history.