The Innocent Spy: Summary and book reviews of The Innocent Spy by Laura Wilson, plus links to an excerpt from The Innocent Spy and a biography of Laura Wilson.
The Innocent Spy A Mystery
by Laura Wilson
Hardcover: Jul 2009,
464 pages.
London, June 1940. When the body of silent screen star Mabel Morgan is found impaled on a wrought-iron fence, the coroner rules her death as suicide. Detective Ted Stratton is not convinced and suspects that Morgan’s fatal fall may have been the work of one of Soho’s most notorious gangsters.
Meanwhile, MI5 agent Diana Calthrop is leading a covert operation when she discovers that her boss is involved in espionage. Only when Stratton’s path crosses Diana’s does the pair start to uncover the truth. And soon they also begin to realize they like each other a little too much...
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse
If you like a book you can sink your teeth into, a bevy of colorful characters, and an accurate and evocative historical setting - and a bizarre local murder mystery solved amid WII espionage - I highly recommend The Innocent Spy. (Reviewed by Vy Armour). Full Review (863 words).
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This outstanding first in a series set during WWII won Wilson (A Little Death) the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.
Library Journal
Starred Review. Fans of Blitz-era mysteries will reserve this one.
Kirkus Reviews
Wilson (Telling Lies to Alice, 2004, etc.) kicks off this new series with memorable portraits of witheringly evasive Forbes-James, based in part on Charles Knight, the real spymaster behind Ian Fleming's M....
The Spectator (UK)
The novel isn't subtle but it exudes the sort of high-grade glossy competence that characterises a good Agatha Christie story or an episode of The Sopranos. And that’s a considerable compliment.
The Guardian (UK)
Wilson has established a reputation for stylish psychological crime; the first in her series featuring decent copper Stratton is enriched with warmth and humour as well.
The Telegraph (UK)
[This is] is Laura Wilson's most ambitious book, a story of treason, blackmail and murder set in London in 1940. The city's wartime atmosphere is impeccably created and there are two brilliantly drawn characters.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
I read The Healing in two sittings it is a fascinating story of plantation life at the beginning of the Civil War. Granada, a slave newborn child...
read more
The Uncommon Reader is a novella by novelist and playwright, Alan Bennett. The story starts with the Queen coming across the mobile library van...
read more
Amazon to open bricks and mortar store in Seattle(Feb 07 2012) Last week, the word in the blogosphere was that Amazon was considering opening a bricks-and-mortar store. Over the weekend goodereader.com added substance to...
Full Story
Arizona bills Amazon for $53 million in uncollected sales tax(Feb 06 2012) The ongoing sales tax battle between many US states and large online retailers, most notably Amazon, continues with a thrust from Arizona which, last week,...
Full Story
(863 words).
The Spectator (UK)
RSS feed
