Lovely

I didn't actually like the Jacqueline Winspear books, although I wanted to, but I did like this one. I've started the second in this series and it's even better. In this first book, I think the writing was a bit 'loose', if that makes sense. I mean that sometimes people seemed to talk too long about a topic, but overall I liked it very much. It really is, as someone said, a cozy spy book, which I think is a new genre. There was a lot more plot than I expected, with some real surprises and the heroine is definitely the 'heroine', meaning a bit larger than life. It's many decades since I read Nancy Drew, but I remember admiring her as a young girl and this heroine is worth looking up to as well, as she solves problems that don't tend to happen in everyday life.

One always associates the "Keep Calm and Carry On" motto to the British and the 'stiff upper lip", but I had never really connected it to wartime, Winston Churchill, and that resolute attitude he helped the Brits maintain, before it was known that Hitler was not going to be able to steamroll over Britain as well. I find it a more inspiring quote now, plus we learned a variation: KPO for Keep Plodding On and another variation in Book 2. Good for some days at work! Also, helps one to remember every day to be grateful for NOT being in a war zone.

64 people found this helpful

Enjoyed This New Author For Me.

What did you love best about Mr. Churchill's Secretary?

I had no particular problem with any of the book. All women know the predjudice involved in evaluating our skills. I always enjoy a book about a woman who has interests, as an adult, that uses intellectual skills with being dehumanized. Maggie is smart, analytical, but very empathetic too. She doesn't try to be one of the guys except to try to excel at the things she does best.

The blending of history and fiction is very masterfully done. I am a Churchill fan and have read his biography. What a character.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Maggie because she is bright, grows with each experience and is very plucky.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Maggie was being pursued and was hiding in the Anderson shelter. It taxed one to think a out how she could escape. Kept your attention.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

What History Didn't Tell Us.

Any additional comments?

Immediately listened to the second book and am looking forward to the next. My dad was a WWII vet and I have read extensively about that era. It is fun to see the authors skill in using fact and fiction.

27 people found this helpful

Don't Miss Maggie!

Born in 1939,a month after WWII was declared,I grew up on war stories and experiences from my British grandparents and uncles who had served "over There"."Mr Churchill's Secretary" by Susan Elia MacNeal enthralled me as it fleshed out many of the ideas and impressions which I had absorbed in my early years.
Maggie Hope is an engaging heroine,born English but raised American, who has returned to England in 1939 to dispose of her grandmother's house in London according to the terms of her will.When war breaks out she takes a position as a typist at 10 Downing St and so begins her "great adventure".
Susan Elia MacNeal has obviously done a tremendous amount of historical research to write this novel and she weaves this almost seamlessly into her riveting plot.
The few anachromisms present eg.Maggie's occasional rants about sexual and personal equality,seem out of place in a woman of this time and background,however,the absorbing plot and likeable characters make up for any minor flaws.
As a long-time follower of authors such as Anne Perry, Laurie R.King and Jacqueline Winspear et al, I find that "Mr Churchill's Secretary"shows great promise as a first novel and hopefully will become a series I cannot miss(especially if Wanda McCaddon continues as narrator).

25 people found this helpful

Good Cozy Spy thriller

About the audio production: **Just my 2 cents** First off was my confusion on narration: the listing on audible says Wanda McCaddon but the intro of narrator says Donada Peters I guess they are one in the same but then the intro and the listing should use the same name. Wanda/Donada was a good narrator there were times when slipping in between the British and American accents didn’t work well for me, there were times they were kind of a cross between the two and it was hard to tell who was talking. But I did enjoy her narration as whole.

This book was not what I was expecting; I didn’t expect it to be a spy/war/mystery/family secrets story all rolled into a really good book. The setting was fascinating; the beginning of WWII and with people like the US Ambassador Joseph Kennedy who lost his post for being a Nazi sympathizer and an anti-Semite which I looked up and was a bit shocked to find this all to be true. And of course Winston Churchill it was fun to hear about his pets running rough shod over 10 Downing (I looked that up too and found it to be true). So this book was well researched and made me want to look things up and as I’ve said before that’s what makes a good historical fiction novel.

I really liked Maggie she did remind me a little of Maisie Dobbs but that could just be the setting and the fact that she is a strong independent woman in a time that was a bit frowned upon. I also liked the fact that Maggie was raised an American but by the end of this book has been found to be a valuable asset for the England. There are at times a lot of characters to keep track of and I did get confused a couple times as to who was who so I hope in the next book this will be tightened up a bit. I do look forward to reading more of Maggie.

I felt this book was kind of a Cozy Spy Thriller it had all the great elements of a good spy novel plus the best of a cozy mystery. I look forward to more by this author.

45 people found this helpful

Good, not great

What did you like best about Mr. Churchill's Secretary? What did you like least?

I liked that she was a capable young woman, earning recognition for herself during a time when women were starting to be noticed in new ways (during the war).

What does Wanda McCaddon bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I don't know--I might have read it differently than listening to it. I don't think she is the worst narrator, but really, not the best. I don't think she could decide if she was American or British. Some of the American accents shifted from southern to more northern, and I couldn't really tell about the British. I didn't really enjoy her voice quality for certain characters. But she did do a good job of creating different voices for everyone.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Possibly

Any additional comments?

I had hoped it would have been better---a great premise, but too many anachronisms (Like, "Playing the Italian card." That expression is pretty new--wasn't being used in the 40's. )

19 people found this helpful

New WW2 heroine in mystery

Maggie Hope is a new character in the many mysteries about women in war times. She was British born, but was raised by her aunt in America after her mother was killed in a car crash and her Dad 'lost it' mentally.  After graduating top in her class with top skills in math and languages, she's planning to get a graduate degree at MIT, but her plans change when she returns to England to sell the old family home.  Getting a job in England is hindered by the prevailing attitude that 'women belong in the home, or in support jobs'.  She has mixed feeling about her secretarial job at #10 Downing Street but is prepared to do ALL  for home and country.

Frustrated by her seeming menial secretarial job, her position changes when she decodes a covert message she finds in the newspaper.  This comes along with her replacing PM Churchill's sick secretary.  Everything's comes fast and furious after that.  Murders, spies, bombs, and differing views about Hitler mixed with Irish IRA resistance actions, keeps everyone anxious and working to keep England in the winning mix of war.

What adds extra interest to this book is the well researched addition of views on women, spies, Churchill, and decoding enemy messages. The factual research for this fictional book is spectacular!  There are also relationships between diverse friends and family secrets that made this book a cut above the present popular WW2 women mysteries like the Jacqueline Winspear series.  If you enjoy this genre, you need to add this Maggie Hope series to your reading list!!

6 people found this helpful

Disappointing sophomoric & simplistically naive

Churchill was a mere backdrop. Written for young teens. Prose very colloquial & storyline prosaic. Protagonists are lime characters & caricatures. Throw in gender issues, IRA, terrorism, British oppression, WWII, cryptography, pathos of an orphan, gay rights and every imaginable stereotypes. Horrors of London bombing never becomes real, oppression of homosexuality never explored and is simply stated rather than illustrated. Reference to Oscar Wilde as if it were common knowledge. Big mistake in purchasing this. My wife started but did not finish second book in the series because it was just plain unbelievable & worse than the first.

5 people found this helpful

loved it

likable characters with interesting detail about the period plus enough mystery to keep me guessing. I'm only disappointed there is no book 2.

11 people found this helpful

Wish it had been about Mr. C's secretary

But the main character had to be a super hero.
If you are looking for a thoughtful story of code breaking and the inner workings of the war room go to a different book. Maggie gets caught up with IRA terrorists and an unlikely side story of her long dead father being kept as a mad professor at Betchly park (still very much alive). The first couple hours are spent introducing forgettable characters. Then you spend the rest of the book trying to remember who "was that?". The last couple hours were exciting and the action was well done. But I was expecting a much more brainy book and instead this was very much more action/adventure. Badly out of place hand wringing and the obligatory gay character (with no real impact on the plot) round out a not great book.
I think this author knows how to write, but could not quite decide what the book should have been about.

33 people found this helpful

Thoroughly enjoyed

What did you love best about Mr. Churchill's Secretary?

I loved the historical setting.

What did you like best about this story?

No detailed graphic violence.

Have you listened to any of Wanda McCaddon’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. I thought it was well performed given the multiple nationalities.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Another piece of the great of the great war.

10 people found this helpful