Saturday, May 4, 2013

ARC Review: His Majesty's Hope


His Majesty's Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal
4/5 stars
Bantam Books, 2013
331 pages
Adult Historical Mystery
3rd Maggie Hope Mystery
Scheduled to release May 14

Source: Received an ARC from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

After enjoying Mr. Churchill's Secretary and being completely blown away by Princess Elizabeth's Spy, of course I knew I would be reading the third book in what has rapidly become one of my favorite mystery series. This book promised more adventure and deepening threats but ultimately was less satisfying to me than the previous outings although I'm not entirely sure why.

The premise is very promising as Maggie is finally getting an opportunity to flex her espionage muscle, becoming the first woman to be dropped in the field on a mission to Berlin, Germany. This expands when Maggie picks up some clues and expands her directives even further to fight Nazism. Meanwhile her own personal life implodes with family and romantic relationship troubles.

Maggie is, as always, intrepid and very daring; not bloodthirsty but committed to seeing through her cause. She faces some tough moments in this book and handles them with aplomb. The previous books have been building toward certain events and those payoff here while also setting up further events for the next book.

I think part of the reason for my enjoying this book less is due to the more somber tone because this book highlights Operation Compassionate Death aka the Nazi program to euthanize thousands of mentally ill and physically deformed children, those who were deemed unworthy of being part of the pure master race. This hangs over the entire book and Maggie part of a group who gathers evidence to expose these disgusting acts.  I guess I felt like the first two books were a little cozier and I preferred that style but I should have known that a story set during World War II will have to address this at some point. Of course, since this book is set in Germany, we're also seeing the persecution of Jews in particular the forced deportation.

A subplot I did love concerns Maggie's friend David who is gay and may have found the one to his parents' dismay. Though it does not take up much page-time, I enjoyed whenever the book shifted back to him. Something I did not enjoy was Maggie's love life, which ends very unsettled but which I will not discuss for fear of spoilers. Let's just say that I was a big fan of John in book one.

Overall: Mix of tones is a bit confusing: we have the darkness of euthanasia and Nazi evil balanced against some lighter scenes and mixed with very addictive writing that led me to finish this much faster than I had anticipated. If you've liked the previous books in the series, you'll probably want to continue.

Cover: Love this cover-the glamor of her dress plus the menacing Nazi swastika in the faint background are just excellent and so appealing to me.

8 comments:

  1. Ooh, this sounds so good. Love historical mysteries! I started the Maisie Dobbs WWI books but I'm behind.

    You can find me here: Jen @ YA Romantics

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This series has earned comparisons to the Maisie Dobbs books-I've only read one and felt lost because it wasn't the first. I'd like to read more though!

      Delete
  2. I don't read much of historical mysteries, but Maggie sounds great, and I could root for her. David too. Glad you enjoy it. Wonderful review.

    Jenea @ Books Live Forever

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maggie is just so fun and spunky and I loved the romantic side of David that we got to see here after he was more of a playboy in the first two books.

      Delete
  3. This one does sound like it has quite a serious aspect due to the setting and period in time, but the mystery/spy element also really appeals to me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do really love spy stories and that's what drew me to this series at first.

      Delete
  4. I'm more a suspense/thriller girl than mysteries but I've heard such good things about this series I might have to give it a try. Nice review :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am torn about this book-I feel like it's almost a cozy but then there are darker moments that have me scrambling to classify it.

      Delete

Thank you for commenting-I love to read your thoughts! Feel free to leave a link to your latest post so I can stop by!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...