Princess Elizabeth's Spy

A Maggie Hope Mystery

By: Susan Elia MacNeal

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

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

Engaging

After enjoying "Mr. Churchill's Secretary", we looked forward to this 2nd book in the series. It is a wonderful story, moving briskly and giving insights to the characters and events of WWII. Our one disappointment was the narration. We might have been satisfied with Susan Duerden as narrator if we had not become accustomed to the superior narration of Wanda McCaddon in the earlier book. "Princess Elizabeth's Spy" ends in a real cliffhanger situation and we are anxious for the release of Book 3.

Good thing it's a good story...

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'm intrigued by the time period, and the personalities in World War II. Although this is fiction, the characters of young Princess Elizabeth and her parents, the king and queen, and Winston Churchill contain enough of what is known to be true to keep the story interesting.

What did you like best about this story?

The plot is believable, and the play between MI5 and MI6 together with basic spycraft make the story fun.

How could the performance have been better?

If it were not for the strength of the story, I would have deleted this after the first 15 minutes. The narrator speaks in a sing-songy voice that about drives me nuts. At one point I nearly decided to stop listening and buy the book. I bought the entire series, and hope that there is an improvement in the subsequent audios.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The interaction between Molly and the young princesses is touching.

narration of male British voices annoying

The narrator does a good job with the main character's voice and the voices of the princesses but the male voices are very annoying. Had planned to listening to the whole series but unless the narrator changes I will have to switch to hard copy.

The narrator was a bit irritating.

Ms. Duerden has a beautiful voice but her lyrical way of ending sentences drive me nuts.

Bring back Wanda McCaddon as narrator

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

no. I would recommend reading this book, not listening. Susan Duerdon has too modern a speaking style with her "up speak" ending every phrase with a high note.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Susan Duerden?

Bring back Wanda McCaddon. Susan Duerdon might be great narrating a modern novel where the characters speak in that irritating modern upspeak (the high rising terminal I just learned from Wiki). No one talked remotely like that until the last decade or so. Having a characters from 1939 speak with such a modern accent is as irritating as any other inaccurate and inappropriate accent. I could not get lost in the story which is why I love to listen to audio books.

Good book but not as good as 1st Maggie Hope book

When I bought the book on the day it was released, I thought "OO, maybe I'll be the first to write a review."
When I finished listening to the book, I thought, "Um ... I hope I'm not the first to write a review; I'll wait a while ..."

Unfortunately, this second Maggie Hope book is not as good as the first.

The narrator for this book is not very good at all. In fact, the opening pages of the book are ... well, I almost gave up even before the real action started, and I wasn't sure if it was just the narrator or not.
Once the action got going, it kept me interested enough to listen to the end.

However ...
It was my own fault ...

This second book has come out so soon after the first book, that I made an assumption. I assumed it would be the same reader as the first book, and did not bother listening to the sample.
I haven't listened to it. So I do not know if it includes any of the voice given to Maggie --
which is far too childish and petulant for someone in her position and of her age.

The action of the story was enough to let me overlook that annoying factor.

But, the few times that Mr. Churchill appears in the novel, I would expect some attempt to be made to sound like him. Nope. He sounds like any gruff older man in any manor house story of early 20th century Britain. Sorry -- that was a very poor decision by the director and producer of this audiobook.
Of course, having a woman try to sound like Churchill is sort of like female Elvis impersonators ... **Shudder**
And, almost any attempt to mimic a Churchillian voice is almost a joke -- but it still needs to be attempted if he speaks in an audiobook.

And the attempts at the few German character voices -- **bigger shudder** -- almost more of a cartoony sounding voice than an honest attempt.

Now, as for the novel itself -- I'm sorry, it is not as good as the first Maggie Hope book. However, it is good. :-)

But, I doubt I will be picking up the third book when it comes out until after at least 10 people review it -- and then, I'll probably try to borrow it from the public library and listen to it before I purchase it. Based on the set up for that book as set down in the final pages / moments of this book -- it's not really something that I think I'll be interested in. Bummer. I really liked the first book and had eagerly anticipated more books about Maggie Hope in the future. **sigh**

Be sure to listen to the sample before you decide to get this as an audiobook. It is a good book -- maybe get the print version. Or if you really want to listen to it -- honestly, if it is available as a Kindle book with the "text-to-voice" option enabled -- you may just prefer that voice ... (I have actually found two books, so far, that I did prefer the text-to-voice version even though it can't handle words like "Mrs." [comes out as "M R S"] or "c'mon" [which comes out as "C Monday"] ...)

Enjoy A Strong Woman As Lead Character

What made the experience of listening to Princess Elizabeth's Spy the most enjoyable?

The lead character is very intelligent and able to think on her feet. Enjoy reading about real woman.

What did you like best about this story?

History of WW ll is very well tied into the story.

What about Susan Duerden’s performance did you like?

What I usually say is that if the story is my main point of interest and I am not noticing the narrator, they are doing a fine job. That was the case hear.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I never do that. The reason I like audio books is that I can ""read" while I am driving or working. My life doesn't lend itself to engulfing whole books at a time.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to the next book. Still have questions about the fate of one character and the relationship between Maggie and her dad.

Disappointing

This was disappointing.

I truly enjoyed the first book in this series and I was looking forward to this one. The story was no more than just okay. What bothered me more was the narration. I've enjoyed Duerden's work before but her Maggie Hope was way too "breathless." All the men sounded very angry. It was difficult to listen to.

Some of the dialogue was downright silly and some of the terminology was definitely American and not British. I could understand if this was Maggie's dialogue but the use of the word "flashlight" in place of "torch" was out of place. There were a few more but they escape me now.

I've already downloaded the next book; otherwise I may have reconsidered the audio version.

What will happen next?

Susan Elia MacNeal spins a good tale. Maggie seams a little whiny in her second book and even though she’s supposed to be a math wiz she fails to come to some pretty obvious conclusions. I loved all the parts with the royal princesses. Well written. Can’t wait to get into book 3!

Irritating

I'm caught up in the series but the oration: 2 beats, 2 beats then 4 beats, for 9 hours - I don't know if I can listen to another book. - Thankfully the dialogue doesn't suffer from this and she has a good voice.