Maggie Hope, former secretary to Winston Churchill, becomes a spy in the British MI-5 during the Nazi blitzkrieg of World War II. Her first official assignment is working undercover at Windsor Castle posing as a math tutor to young princess Elizabeth.

Maggie certainly didn’t become a spy to work undercover as a nanny, but this assignment turns out to be far more dangerous than she had imagined. According to MI-5 intelligence, there is a Nazi informant on the royal staff, and it’s Maggie’s job to figure out who that is. Hitler has plans to eliminate the current monarchy and replace it with one of his choosing. Maggie knows with a traitor among them King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their young daughters Elizabeth and Margaret are in constant danger.

While Maggie settles in at Windsor her fellow agents investigate a security breach at Bletchley Park, a top-secret intelligence-gathering installation. Decrypted Nazi military code intercepted from the Enigma machine is being smuggled out of Bletchley. It’s linked to two murders occurring within days of each other, one of them on castle property. Suspects abound as the Nazis set their plot in motion to kill the royals, putting Maggie’s skills as an MI-5 agent to the test.

MacNeal’s depiction of the two princesses as children sheds an entirely new light on these two historic figures. Her references to actual events of World War II give the story depth and plausibility and her descriptions of castle life add to the authenticity. MacNeal’s inventive tale is as interesting as it is entertaining. A jolly good read!