I’m a big fan of the Maggie Hope Mystery Series by Susan Elia MacNeal. The Prisoner in the Castle is the 8th installment in this traditional British historic series which is set during World War II and it doesn’t disappoint. If you haven’t read this series, do yourself a favor and start.
Maggie Hope is a spy with Britain’s Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). She’s used her intelligence to help in many different capacities from MI5 to MI6 to S.O.E. At the start of book 8, her knowledge of Britain’s secrets (including the real location for the British invasion of France) combined with her independent spirit and some really sketchy relatives, make her exceedingly dangerous. If Britain’s enemies can get this information, then the war is lost. To protect the country’s war efforts, Maggie is imprisoned in a isolated castle in Scotland, known as Killoch Castle, along with others who (for one reason or another) are deemed too dangerous to roam free. When the island’s inhabitants are murdered one by one, Maggie has to find the killer before she becomes the next victim.
Already a fan of this series, I was an even bigger fan when I realized this book was an homage to Agatha Christie’s, And Then There Were None. MacNeal does a great job shifting suspension from one of the island’s inhabitants to the other to keep the reader guessing. She also throws in a good many twists just to keep things interesting. In addition to everything going on with Maggie, MacNeal brings back some characters from Maggie’s not-to-distant past which has me wondering what’s in the future for this cunning character.