Mr. Churchill's Secretary (MacNeal)

Mr. Churchill's Secretary  (Maggie Hope Series, #1)
Susan Elia MacNeal, 2012
Random House
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780553593617


Summary
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary captures the drama of an era of unprecedented challenge—and the greatness that rose to meet it.

London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope. She graduated at the top of her college class and possesses all the skills of the finest minds in British intelligence, but her gender qualifies her only to be the newest typist at No. 10 Downing Street.

Her indefatigable spirit and remarkable gifts for codebreaking, though, rival those of even the highest men in government, and Maggie finds that working for the prime minister affords her a level of clearance she could never have imagined—and opportunities she will not let pass. In troubled, deadly times, with air-raid sirens sending multitudes underground, access to the War Rooms also exposes Maggie to the machinations of a menacing faction determined to do whatever it takes to change the course of history.

Ensnared in a web of spies, murder, and intrigue, Maggie must work quickly to balance her duty to King and Country with her chances for survival. And when she unravels a mystery that points toward her own family’s hidden secrets, she’ll discover that her quick wits are all that stand between an assassin’s murderous plan and Churchill himself.

In this daring debut, Susan Elia MacNeal blends meticulous research on the era, psychological insight into Winston Churchill, and the creation of a riveting main character, Maggie Hope, into a spectacularly crafted novel. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1966
• Raised—Buffalo, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., Wellesley College
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York


Susan Elia MacNeal is an American writer best known for her Maggie Hope mystery series. She was raised in Buffalo, NY, and attended Wellesley College, where she cross-registered for classes at MIT. She also attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard.

Susan interned at Random House, then moved to Penguin publishers and, later, to McGraw-Hill. Eventually, she became an associate editor at Dance Magazine.

Mr. Churchill's Secetary, the first in the Maggie Hope mystery series, was published in 2012, followed by Princess Elizabeth's Spy in 2013. The third installment, The Prime Minister's Secret, is due out in 2014.

The first book won the 2013 Barry Award for Best Paperback original by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine! The second was an Oprah Pick of the Week and won the Booky Award by BookGateway.com. Both books have been nominated for various other awards, including a Dilys, Edgar, Thriller, and Macavity, among others.

Susan's other writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Fordor's, Time Out New York, Time Out London, Publishers Weekly, and Dance Magazine. She has also written for various publications of the New York City Ballet and is the author of two nonfiction books.

Susan is married and lives with her husband and two children in Brooklyn, New York. (Adapted from the author's website.)

Book Reviews
A plucky heroine isn’t enough to salvage a plot overly dependent on contrivances, as shown by MacNeal’s debut set in 1940 London, the kickoff to a series. The murder of Diana Snyder, a secretary in Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s office, creates a vacancy that American expat Maggie Hope agrees to fill, despite her umbrage at having been previously passed over for a more substantive position there. Maggie adjusts fairly quickly, even as the people of London strive to withstand both German bombs and IRA outrages. Since those behind Snyder’s fatal stabbing as well as their motive are identified early on, the suspense mainly lies in whether Maggie will be able to use her intellect to foil a plot aimed at decapitating the British government. On several occasions, disaster is averted purely by chance, undermining efforts to credit Maggie with saving the day.
Publishers Weekly


British-born but American-raised Maggie Hope, a math whiz with an MIT graduate school offer on hold, went to London to sell her late grandmother's home. Now it's 1940, and she is passionate about staying to help with her birth country's war effort. As a secretary for the prime minister's office, she is privy to Winston Churchill's inner thoughts. But unbeknownst to Maggie, a mole is working nearby, burrowing deep inside 10 Downing Street and making plans to cripple England's leadership. Already, one secretary has died at the hands of IRA activists colluding with the Nazis, but Maggie's shocking discoveries about her own family further threaten national security. VERDICT Watch out for the smart girl who can crack codes with her slide rule. The appeal of real-life characters populating the story works well in this solid historical cozy debut. MacNeal squeezes in plenty of World War II facts but never slows the pace. I like pairing this with Maureen Jennings's Season of Darkness and Sarah R. Shaber's Louise's War.
Library Journal


Trying to sell your grandmother's decaying Victorian house back in London can have unexpected consequences. Maggie Hope was born in England, but after her parents were killed in a car accident, her aunt, a college professor, took her along when she accepted a position in Boston. Unable now to sell her grandmother's house, Maggie is forced to take in roommates to keep things going. Her degree in math from a prestigious college apparently means nothing when she applies for jobs that would use her considerable skills to aid Britain, now in the throes of World War II. Her friend David Greene, one of Winston Churchill's private secretaries, prevails on Maggie to take on a secretarial post at 10 Downing Street, where her predecessor was murdered. She does her best with her job and enjoys a busy social life with her friends and roommates: Chuck, an Irish girl training to be a nurse; Paige, a Virginia debutante Maggie met in college; Annabelle and Clarabelle, "the Dumb-Belles"; and, most recently, Sarah, a ballerina. While the Luftwaffe is raining bombs on London, the IRA is doing its best to help Germany with sabotage and espionage. Maggie and her friends are caught up in the situation when it appears one of them may be aiding the IRA. In the midst of this intrigue, Maggie is shocked to learn that her father is still alive. Though she has little time to spare from her job, she's determined to track him down. Brave, clever Maggie's debut is an enjoyable mix of mystery, thriller and romance that captures the harrowing experiences of life in war-torn London.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Do you identify with Maggie? If so, what did you identify with in her?

2. At what point in the book were you most caught up in her decisions?

3. Which secondary character did you like the best? Which did you like the least? Why? Did you change your opinion of these people as the novel progressed and more information was revealed about them?

4. What’s the single most important decision or realization that Maggie made during the course of the book?

5. Did you find Maggie’s character believable? Are there situations where she acted inconsistently with her character?

6. If you could change one trait or action of Maggie, what would it be?

7. Did Maggie grow and change over the course of the novel? How?

8. How else would you like to see Maggie grow and change after the events of the novel?

9. How does the book reflect the time period or culture in which it was published? Were the depictions accurate?

10 Were you surprised at the twists in the plot? If so, which ones?

11. Which betrayal to you think is worse for Maggie—Aunt Edith’s or her father’s?

12. Does this book inspire you to read more? If so, what does it make you want to read?

13. Since women were limited in their choices of jobs, what job would you have chosen or attempted to obtain? Would you have sent your children to the countryside to be safe?

14. What would have been the hardest part of rationing for you? For example: The characters cope with rationing, bombing raids, and clothing coupons, as well of other wartime necessities.
(Questions from the author's website.)

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