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A review by miraclecharlie
Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante by Susan Elia MacNeal
4.0
Susan Elia McNeal's Maggie Hope Mysteries are one of my favorite addictions. I have been trying to ration them, since there are but seven, but in less than ten months I have devoured five, and the final two are sitting here, next to me, in my room, taunting me. I don't know how long I will be able to hold out. Especially since each one surpasses the previous.
In this, "Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante" there is much riveting, thrilling plot as Maggie is conscripted to the service of Eleanor Roosevelt, who finds herself in a sticky situation involving blackmail and abhorrent chicanery from sources who resent her support for people of color and other categories of folks that these racist, liberal-hating bigots find offensive and a threat to white-male supremacy. Hmm, sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so, too. Mrs. Roosevelt could just as easily be Mrs. Clinton, slandered and relentlessly attacked as they both were by the conservative right wing cabal of dishonest, duplicitous ninnyhammers.
Because America is set to join World War 2, Winston Churchill travels to Washington, D.C. to meet and negotiate with President Roosevelt. Maggie returns to her home country at Churchill's behest and while there she becomes involved in sleuthing the truth of the blackmail scheme, but, also, rekindling her love affair with her RAF pilot, John Sterling, though things keep getting in the way, and, too, in other parts of the world her not-dead-after-all mother, the Nazi spy, and her not-dead-after-all father, the brilliant scientist, are up to their own devious shenanigans.
Susan Elia MacNeal juggles all of these elements with grace and wit and break-neck pacing and, too, my particular favorite character, Maggie's gay friend, David Greene, is also along for the ride. What I find especially marvelous about the Maggie Hope series is the way in which historical detail is effortlessly intertwined in the story, educating and informing me about things I'd not known, never thought about, encouraging further reading --- and Susan Elia MacNeal includes a convenient list of sources and books at the end of the story.
And, too, Maggie Hope has a sensibility and a moral compass which is distinctly modern. Without being polemical or straining credulity, Susan Elia MacNeal includes ideas relevant to the current zeitgeist. I welcome an author who has a point of view and speaks it in compelling, entertaining, and delightful prose.
Love Maggie. Love Susan Elia MacNeal. Trying to hold off on Numbers 6 and 7. Not gonna happen.
In this, "Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante" there is much riveting, thrilling plot as Maggie is conscripted to the service of Eleanor Roosevelt, who finds herself in a sticky situation involving blackmail and abhorrent chicanery from sources who resent her support for people of color and other categories of folks that these racist, liberal-hating bigots find offensive and a threat to white-male supremacy. Hmm, sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so, too. Mrs. Roosevelt could just as easily be Mrs. Clinton, slandered and relentlessly attacked as they both were by the conservative right wing cabal of dishonest, duplicitous ninnyhammers.
Because America is set to join World War 2, Winston Churchill travels to Washington, D.C. to meet and negotiate with President Roosevelt. Maggie returns to her home country at Churchill's behest and while there she becomes involved in sleuthing the truth of the blackmail scheme, but, also, rekindling her love affair with her RAF pilot, John Sterling, though things keep getting in the way, and, too, in other parts of the world her not-dead-after-all mother, the Nazi spy, and her not-dead-after-all father, the brilliant scientist, are up to their own devious shenanigans.
Susan Elia MacNeal juggles all of these elements with grace and wit and break-neck pacing and, too, my particular favorite character, Maggie's gay friend, David Greene, is also along for the ride. What I find especially marvelous about the Maggie Hope series is the way in which historical detail is effortlessly intertwined in the story, educating and informing me about things I'd not known, never thought about, encouraging further reading --- and Susan Elia MacNeal includes a convenient list of sources and books at the end of the story.
And, too, Maggie Hope has a sensibility and a moral compass which is distinctly modern. Without being polemical or straining credulity, Susan Elia MacNeal includes ideas relevant to the current zeitgeist. I welcome an author who has a point of view and speaks it in compelling, entertaining, and delightful prose.
Love Maggie. Love Susan Elia MacNeal. Trying to hold off on Numbers 6 and 7. Not gonna happen.