Denise

Once she'd been so sure of black and white, of right and wrong. She wasn't anymore. But she was certain of one thing—while there was no such thing as a good war, this particular one was a necessary war.

I have to start this off with a warning because this review might just turn into me rambling about how great this book is. I absolutely love this series and love reading about Maggie Hope. I didn't expect to finish this book the same day that I started it but once I picked it up I just couldn't put it down.

Maggie went through some really traumatic things during her mission in Berlin so now she has decided to go teach at her old spy training camp. Maggie is really depressed and has basically turned into a different person. When she finds herself investigating a case in which ballerinas, one of which is her friend Sarah, she uncovers horrifying things but she also manages to distract herself from her depression.

I really felt sorry for Maggie in the beginning of this book. She was just a completely different person and it was hard to see her so cold. She was still struggling from the events that happened in Berlin and it was great to see her slowly get better once she started the investigation. I just loved the emotional depth in this book and really enjoy Maggie Hope's growth throughout the series.

There were a couple other story lines that were also being played out in addition to following Maggie and I found those story lines to be interesting as well. I like how some of the story lines eventually connected. I have to say that the story line with Clara Hess was crazy (that woman is just crazy) but it was really easy to get sucked in to it.

I think that I found a minor discrepancy between the previous book in the series and this book. In this book Maggie says that Hugh never told her why he was fired by MI-5 but I went back and looked in the previous book in the series and he did tell her why. It is very minor and doesn't affect the story any but I noticed it because I had just re-read the other books of the series.

I loved Maggie's cat K (or Mr. K). I loved his personality and how Maggie was able to connect with him and how he helped her heal a bit. I am really hoping to see more of Mr. K in this series.

Overall I loved this book for Maggie's emotional depth and growth, Clara Hess' livening of the book with her psychoness, Mr. K's amazing personality, oh and getting to see David and John working together again. I highly recommend this book and series if you enjoy WWII historical fiction. I eagerly await the next installment in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the galley.