Review
Fans of crime and espionage will love
The Innocent Spy, especially knowing that it's just the first in a series starring detective Ted Stratton, a character who readers will welcome in future installments. Much of the story line is based around real-life events and personalities, and Laura Wilson blends them all into a captivating mystery concerning a local murder and WWII spies.
Along with Colonel Forbes-James, based on the spymaster Charles Maxwell Knight, Ms. Wilson employs other fascinating characters, such as Diana, an attractive, upper-class girl, (based on Joan Miller, 1918-1984) who successfully infiltrated an anti-semitic organization known as the Right Club in the 1940’s. (See sidebar for an historical guide to main characters). Because so many of the characters are based on historical figures, I suggest the reader take a peek at the author’s...
Beyond the Book
Real-life Spies
The character of Colonel Forbes-James is based in part on the spymaster Charles Maxwell Knight (1900-1968). After rising through the ranks of the British Fascisti organization, Knight was recruited by M15 in the mid-1920's, and later headed up B5b, the division responsible for monitoring political subversion. As M15's chief agent runner, Knight did not agree with the prejudice against the employment of women as agents - in fact, he endorsed their particular aptitude as agents provocateurs - and consequently many of his best agents were women.
