It’s 1943 and Maggie Hope, former secretary to Winston Churchill turned spy over eight previous novels, finds herself preparing to retire from her double life. Once an eternal optimist who would have done anything for the war effort, a traumatic experience with a sadistic serial killer who targeted and killed female SOE agents like herself has left her in a tailspin of depression. She hasn’t given up fighting Nazis, though, and joins the 107th Tunneling Company where she discovers she thrives on the adrenaline rush of defusing live bombs.

When her latest beau, Detective Chief Inspector James Durgin, comes begging her help with another serial killer case, she’s adamantly against helping him or the police. Unfortunately, fate has another idea and she’s drawn kicking and screaming into another macabre mystery.

Number nine in Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series is a sophisticated exploration of the dark side of war and “shell shock,” or what we now call PTSD. The storytelling is unmatched, the plot is chilling, and the author offers up more than one OMG revelation. The characters are all fabulous—the real deal, especially our protagonist, the complex, emotionally troubled woman Maggie Hope. Though this case stands well on its own, the character arc of Hope over nine books is complicated and rewarding. The series is best read in order.