A review by darwinista
The Key to Deceit by Ashley Weaver

5.0

The second installment of the Electra McDonnell series is as delightful as the first, setting up a satisfying heist adventure! With spies! Ellie, our young 1940s heroine, is now using her safe-cracking skills to help England defeat the Nazi. This book sets up a heist adventure which is quite satisfying. The heroine and the other female characters are not relegated to the role of damsels in distress. There is danger, subterfuge, and skullduggery, and Ellie relishes it. London during the early years of WWII is recreated persuasively, in a way that evokes the moment without veering into a history lesson. I also enjoyed the romantic element. While this isn't a romance novel, Ellie has two potential love interests, and the tension with the tightly-wound Major Ramsey continues to sizzle (albeit on the back burner). If you liked Weaver's earlier series with Amory Ames, this one is better--it has more momentum, more liveliness, an interesting cast of characters, with the heroine's professional skills and atypical values (she's not fully committed to being a good citizen) as the icing on the cake.

Best things:
- Fast-moving, compelling plot
- Competent heroine
- The plot is NOT driven by the main characters doing ridiculously out-of-character things
- Period-appropriate writing (so no wincing over glaring anachronisms, at least not that I noticed)
- Nice romantic tension

Things I didn't love
- Typecasting of "Irishness" with the heroine and her family.
- The second love interest (he's somehow a bit blah, which is disappointing in an injured war veteran/forger)