- This is an absorbing story of a clever lower class girl from a small town in England who, after graduating from Oxford with a first in German, finds herself sucked into one of the great dramas of the 20th century - England's war against Nazi Germany.
- Starford's portrayal of Evelyn during her school years and her life in London after graduation is masterful. Her friends Sally and Julie are also finely drawn, sympathetic characters. Their different family circumstances are critically important in forming and positioning them in a society riddled with class discrimination. The young woman and only child Evelyn as she settles in London has a stifling relationship with her rather ordinary parents. It's excruciating but central to her identity and self-belief.
- And she has a problem with men. She finds it difficult to get emotionally involved. Despite being physically attractive she is 'so cold'. As Sally’s husband Jonty says, she's ‘too self-assured, too cool...Smug, that’s what you are...It’s not an attractive quality’.
- However, in her defence, the men are, with a few exceptions, arrogant, pompous, pretentious and prone to violence. And often weak and indecisive. Misogyny at that time was universally the mode.
- After joining the War Office and subsequently MI5, Evelyn is tasked with infiltrating the anti-Jewish, pro-German conspirators whose numbers are swelling in England. They are passionately opposed to the oncoming war and believe appeasement the best way forward. Their enemy is Churchill, their friend Hitler. Evelyn needs to present herself to them as a fascist to gain their confidence and trust.
- The narrative is engrossing and Starford has a real gift for building tension and suspense. Her prose is also beautiful, often poetic.
- The one real problem with the book is the way some threads resolve in the end. I found elements of it quite disappointing.
- But that doesn't detract from what a thoroughly enjoyable read this novel is.
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