A review by the_jesus_fandom
The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Hmmmm. Did I enjoy this? Yeah, kinda.

The whole romance thing is a bit shallow. All they do is fight and make out. Once again, James says some very disrespectful things (calling Mary a typical soft-hearted, romanticizing, nurturing female.)
There's a scene where Mary finds James lounging on the carpet with some random girl, and it's never explained who she is. It's just a plot device for more drama. And at the end, Mary is still lying to James about her real work.
He stroked the length of her back, and she wanted to purr like a cat.
Ew.

Or this:
"animal passion has its place" (James' words) Sir eeewwww.

Mary helps a servant girl at the palace to get into bed with notoriously dishonest and dishonorable reporter Octavius Jones, even though that's not actually going to help her get a better life and could get her into awful trouble. But it would help Mary solve her case, so I guess you're allowed to ruin someone else's chances at a good life for that.

Mary apparantly thinks she owes so much to the Agency that she's willing to prostitute herself for her mission. Kinda crazy.

The twist villain is someone I'm pretty sure we've never met, which is pretty boring. And then the queen comes into the underground sewer tunnels herself and the villain is taken out with a crossbow. Okayy.

The whole drama with the agency breaking up was super unnecessary: there was a middle way. Tell James about the Agency, just don't recruit him.

I did find the story with her father interesting, especially since it subverted our expectations of him being a good man, but we still don't know anything about the whole mystery and that annoys me.
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