After postponing her academic career in advanced mathematics at MIT, Maggie Hope finds herself in London just before the Blitz, trying to sell the home she inherited from her deceased and relatively unknown grandmother. The transition from graduate student to Londoner is tough at first, but she soon finds herself enamored by the city and decides to stay and do her part for the war effort as a secretary in Churchill’s War Rooms. Once there, she discovers that even the most seemingly insignificant member of Churchill’s staff can find herself in the middle of IRA bombing schemes and Nazi assassination plots. My favorite historical novels always teach me something about the time period, and MacNeil did just that. Meticulously researched, the author presents a vivid and compelling picture of wartime London that never gets in the way of suspense or the flow of the story. Maggie and her friends’ modern attitudes towards the social politics and taboos of the day can seem a bit far-fetched, but MacNeil never allows her characters to become ridiculous. It has been a while since I read a book that I didn't want to put down, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series, Princess Elizabeth's Spy. - Danielle