Ellie McDonnell is tapped for a solo mission in Sunderland and is all too eager to demonstrate her value to Major Ramsey. She gets pulled into the case much quicker than the Major intended when a man falls dead at her feet in the street. Rushing to his aid, she finds a note clutched in his hand that she can't ignore, and she breaks into the man's room to investigate. In addition to the espionage activities in the north of England, Ellie gets surprising information about her mother and father. Can't wait for the next installment!

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for access to an ARC on NetGalley. ( )

https://girllostinabook.com/2023/05/17/review-playing-it-safe-by-ashley-weaver/ ( )

Danger, stress, fear, and panic have taken hold in London with the nightly aerial bombings that have been going on for a month. Electra – Ellie to her friends and family – feels all of those things for her family and friends as well as those family members who are serving. She’s serving too – just in a different way. She serves by working at the behest of Major Gabriel Ramsey who heads up a secret division of the government. Ellie’s unique skills as a safecracker have already helped to uncover German spies. Now, she’s tasked with another mission – a vague one at best. She’s to travel to Sunderland under an assumed name and . . . Do what? Well, she doesn’t know yet.

In typical Ellie fashion, she makes her own mission until she learns more about her real one. Until Major Ramsey deigns to make an appearance and divulge her mission, she’ll just get to know the people around the lodging house to which she has been sent. She quickly befriends a group and begins to ask subtle (or maybe not so subtle) questions about anything and everything. But . . . those friends begin to die. Why? Ellie knows they are hiding something, but what? Is it pertinent to the deaths or to her mission? What does an ornithology book have to do with anything? Who is the charming Rafe Beaumont and why does she instinctually distrust him?

This was an exciting, suspenseful, excellently plotted and delivered story and I devoured it in one sitting. Ellie is such a fun character and I’ve loved watching her character grow and develop through the books. Major Ramsey has also been fun because he is such an uptight, proper, emotionless man – he has to be in his line of work – but it is going to be fun when the dam finally breaks and all of those walls come down. We almost saw it in this book, but some very serious stuff happened that precluded it. Maybe it will happen in the next one. 😊

Ellie and the Major won’t escape unscathed this time and the ending will leave you in a bit of shock – and dismay – and wondering what happened to those German spies. Never fear, I’m sure they’ll turn up in a future book. Great read!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

Spies and danger!

Whew! Well that ending has just opened the proverbial can of worms! 🪱🪱
But back to the main event! Electra McDonnell, our ex safe cracking thief, who’s had several missions now with British Intelligence, is contacted by Major Ramsey (be still mine and Ellie’s beating heart!) to go to the port of Sunderland, with a copy of Northern Birds of England under her arm, and await orders.
It’s 1940 and the game is afoot once more!
Ellies’s walking towards her accommodation when she’s jostled from behind into the path of a lorry.
Fortunately a man grabs her, just in time! Is this deliberate or accidental?
Ellie later sees that same man lying dead on the road near the rooming house she’s staying in. He’s collapsed, frozen in the moment, with a small amount of foam bubbling around his lips! A piece of paper is clasped in his fist. Ellie surreptitiously liberates it.
Now she’s in a strange town, a strange boarding house, a dead man, and with no idea about what’s going on.
Ellie’s new mission will be dangerous but that’s not going to stop her. A possible Nazi counterfeiting ring is operating. Ellie has a few surprises of her own, old contacts that will be revisited. New acquaintances made.
A deadly game of catchup and cat and mouse ensues that has Ellie and Major Ramsay on their toes.
Another electrifying Electra read from Weaver.

A St. Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. ( )

Ellie McDonnell has a new assignment from Major Ramsey. She's to travel to Sunderland and await further instructions. She's glad to leave London, which is under frequent bombardment from the Nazis, but she is confused about why the Major has sent her there. As usual, he is keeping all sorts of information from her.

After meeting a cute Captain on the train and being pushed into traffic on her arrival only to be saved by a stranger, Ellie is dismayed to later seen the stranger die on the street. Some of the girls at her rooming house new the man which leads Ellie into investigating what looks like a suspicious death. Especially since she grabbed the cryptic note that he was clutching in his hand as he died.

Ellie soon finds herself involved in more than one plot. First there is the counterfeiting of identity documents which are likely used for incoming Nazi spies. Second there are the suspicious deaths that seem to be centered around the group of young people Ellie meets.

Ellie's relationship with Major Ramsey also takes a turn in this episode. She's always been interested in him but being out of his class and from a criminal background, she doesn't think he has any interest in her. But kisses are exchanged after he rescues her from an attempted poisoning which makes her uncertain about how he does feel about her.

I enjoyed this story set during World War II, Ellie and Ramsey are both interesting characters. The setting was also well done. Fans of mysteries set in this time period will enjoy this story which happens to be the third in a series. ( )