Princess Elizabeth's Spy

A Maggie Hope Mystery

By: Susan Elia MacNeal

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Susan Elia MacNeal introduced the remarkable Maggie Hope in her acclaimed debut, Mr. Churchill's Secretary. Now Maggie returns to protect Britain's beloved royals against an international plot - one that could change the course of history.

As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5. Spirited, strong-willed, and possessing one of the sharpest minds in government for mathematics and code-breaking, she fully expects to be sent abroad to gather intelligence for the British front. Instead, to her great disappointment, she is dispatched to go undercover at Windsor Castle, where she will tutor the young Princess Elizabeth in math. Yet castle life quickly proves more dangerous - and deadly - than Maggie ever expected.

The upstairs-downstairs world at Windsor is thrown into disarray by a shocking murder, which draws Maggie into a vast conspiracy that places the entire royal family in peril. And as she races to save England from a most disturbing fate, Maggie realizes that a quick wit is her best defense, and that the smallest clues can unravel the biggest secrets, even within her own family.

©2012 Susan Elia Macneal (P)2012 Random House Audio

Good story; awful narrator

Whoever Susan Duerden is, she has no future as a book narrator - she reads in a monotonous and twee fashion that is more suitable to announcing the bus schedules for British Rail than reading a fast-paced and well plotted book.

I really enjoy the 1920s-30s-40s female-centric mysteries (Maisie Dobbs; Lady Georgiana etc.) (that all seem to be written by American women BTW) and quite enjoyed the first book of the Maggie Hope series, read by a different narrator, so was looking forward to the next book. That narrator wasn`t wonderful but she wasn`t completely horrible.

Unfortunately, despite it being a good read, full of bright characters and strong plot, the narration put me off so thoroughly that I abandoned listening to it and checked the book out of the library.

Good series partially ruined by narrator

I can’t believe no one could coach this narrator to give up the singsong narration. Dialogue was fine, story and characters intriguing if Maggie a bit unbelievable.

A good series

The books in this series are quite enjoyable if you can get past the horrible narration. Try increasing the speed, it helped me.

Just off the Mark

I have read all the Maisie Dobbs novels. Jacqueline Winspear's writing is for me more sophisticated and her plots more believable.
I find Maggie Hope novels entertaining, but somewhat lacking and a bit beyond belief.

Character Growth, intrigue, storytelling

Lovely growth of characters, beautiful storytelling and intrigue. Great twist at the end. Better reading than the last one. This story has captivated me.

Narration undermines the story

Sadly narrators have changed from the first book in the series to this, the second book. It was difficult to listen to the narrator make the intelligent protagonist sound like a breathy, silly girl. If you liked the first audiobook, I'd suggest you read the second.

Poor narration of a so-so story

There were likeable aspects of this book--I always enjoy reading about the time surrounding WWI and WWII in Britain. I also liked the mixture of real people (like Churchill, the King and his family, etc) with fictional characters. The story was ok. But I don't find Maggie to be an admirable heroine. She does a lot of good things, but at times she seems so foolish that it detracts from the author's attempt to create a strong female protagonist. Or possibly, it is the unpleasant voice of the narrator that causes that to be my reaction. Not sure. I'm not rushing to listen to more books in this series, though, in all likelihood.

Absolutely wonderful! Sequel is fantastic!

I was a bit hesitant to listen to the second book, with a new narrator, but I am so glad I did! The narration was wonderful, and the story was almost better than the original! Twists and turns, romances, happy and sad. And a thrilling cliffhanger. I cannot wait for Book #3 to come out!

Great idea, but I don’t get it

I love spy stories, especially those set during WWII. Of course Maggie’s plots are a bit fantastic , but then we are taking about fiction. What I don’t get is the constant harping on homosexuality. This one even included female homosexuality. It was completely unnecessary and in my opinion detracted from the story. A writer is entitled to write about whatever he or she wants but Audible has a responsibility to warn the listener ahead of time. My next complaint is about the narrator. She was dreadful. Maggie’s voice sounded like a 10 year old. The narration, as was mentioned by another listener, was so annoying as it seldom dropped at the end of a sentence. Fortunately I didn’t pay for this book. I think I will skip the other Maggie Hope books.

I wish I had read the reviews

I wish I had read the reviews when they pointed out the new narrator and her really annoying up-lilt at the end of every sentence of narrative. Same exact pitches every time- I could play them on a piano, over and over and over, every sentence. I wish I had read how she takes what had been a likeable character in the first book and makes her whiny and childish with a high-pitched voice. People said these things, but I liked the first book and was excited about the series. I found myself listening to silence on my commute the last couple of days, much preferable to this misery. I am returning it and checking out the book from the library to finish it.