Mary Quinn is finally a full working agent, after years of learning and training with the Agency. Her case this time is to find the thief who has been stealing from the Queen of England, Victoria. Little things have been going missing for a while now, and Mary still doesn't have a lead. But it turns out petty thievery isn't the only crime happening at this palace. Secret tunnels and misleading hints make Mary feel more useless than useful. And when Mary thinks she may have found her father, who she'd thought dead for many years, her entire wold spirals out of control. Will Mary be able to solve the case she was hired to? Will she be reunited with her father? Or will the danger from everything else going on at the castle throw Mary too far off course... and into danger?
This book was the best by far of all those in the Agency series. I was so relieved to be able to read a good book after the extremely uninteresting one I last read. This book had all the elements to make it great: suspense, surprises, and a realistic romance. I loved that Y.S. Lee used old-fashioned language, even when just describing Mary's activities. It did a fantastic job at making the reader feel as though they were in the past, not just reading a book based there. I was immersed within these pages; whenever I got the chance, I picked it back up. Also, since I hadn't read the previous novels in the series since last year, it did a good job at catching me back up to speed on all the activities and happenings from them. This is the only series I actually choose to, and look forward to, reading, that's based in the past. I congratulate Lee for writing yet another amazing addition to The Agency series.
I loved the fact that Mary was able to solve another mystery entangled within the case she was initially hired for, especially within the queen's residence. I actually learned a lot about proper etiquette during that time, since Mary was posing as a palace maid. I also realized just how easily a life can be destroyed, simply by doing one wrong thing. London was such a racist place; then again, almost everywhere was racist up until relatively recent times. Lee depicted London in such a realistic way, I could picture it, how it was then, perfectly. That's another thing I appreciate in this book: the level of detail. There's never too little detail, and at the same time, never too much. When there is a big chunk of descriptions, it's necessary to the storyline.
This was by far my favourite cover of all of The Agency books. I love looking at these covers, because even though they're not real pictures, sometimes it takes a bit to realize that. In this, I was entranced by Mary's maid outfit. I began to appreciate it for more than its looks as I got into the story. Acting as a maid gave Mary a chance to meet more people, and actually make friends, something she'd been lacking just about her whole life. The relationships in this book were consistently realistic. Once again, Mary met up with James Easton; this time, things were more serious between them, which I'm extremely happy about. Mary went through a whirlwind of emotions in this novel, ranging from extreme highs to extreme lows to intense anger. In a good book, I can start to feel these states as well; I was able to do that with this book.
Overall, I found this story to be extremely interesting and compelling. After this, I am certainly looking forward to reading the next installments in this series. Mary is certainly coming into her own, and with the promises made towards the end of this novel, I can't wait to see how they turn out. I am giving this book a rating of four stars. Readers who enjoy realistic historic fiction, romances, and mystery will find this book mesmerizing.
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