New Release: The Body at the Tower

Mary Quinn, first introduced in Y.S. Lee's The Agency: A Spy in the House (read my enthusiastic thoughts), is back in The Agency: The Body at the Tower. Second in a planned trilogy, this novel explores more of Mary's unique background and also her undetermined future.

I really don't want to give too much away about this series. The second book picks up about a year after the first but the secrets revealed and relationships fought for and established in the first book are the basis of this story as well. The "body at the tower" is that of a bricklayer, found one morning at the construction site of a large clock tower near London's Parliament -- in fact the one that houses the newly molded Big Ben bell. Did the man have an accident or was he pushed from the top of the tower?

In this story, the mystery is pretty simple but the writing certainly is not. My one complaint about the first book was that it felt like a YA book in that some things weren't fleshed out enough for my tastes. I'm happy to say that I did not feel that way at all during this book. In fact, when things started getting a bit dodgy for Mary, I was happy to remember that it was a YA book and so probably wouldn't go in as dark a direction as it could have. The period details were also wonderful, likely due to the author's PhD in Victorian lit and culture. I'm a bit sad that Lee will only be writing one more book in this series. I'll be getting it as soon as it comes out though!

Waiting for the bell to toll,
K


Support our site and buy The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.