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A review by book_concierge
The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee
3.0
Book Two in the YA historical mystery series about “The Agency” – an organization of female detectives in Victorian London – and featuring orphan and former thief, Mary Quinn.
There have been significant delays in the construction of the clock tower at Parliament, and after a worker falls to his death from the 300-foot tower, rumors swirl that it is haunted by a ghost. Mary goes undercover as “Mark” to work as a helper on the site, and to try to find out what is really going on.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was somewhat repetitious in places, but Mary is a wonderful heroine – bright, resourceful, compassionate, observant and mentally strong. I like that Lee has made Mary half-Chinese, and that her ethnicity poses additional problems (and opportunities) for her in mid-19th-century England. I haven’t read the first in the series yet, so was a bit behind the curve when it came to the relationships between characters, but I didn’t feel lost. I’ll go back and read book # 1, A Spy in the House, and might continue the series from there.
There have been significant delays in the construction of the clock tower at Parliament, and after a worker falls to his death from the 300-foot tower, rumors swirl that it is haunted by a ghost. Mary goes undercover as “Mark” to work as a helper on the site, and to try to find out what is really going on.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was somewhat repetitious in places, but Mary is a wonderful heroine – bright, resourceful, compassionate, observant and mentally strong. I like that Lee has made Mary half-Chinese, and that her ethnicity poses additional problems (and opportunities) for her in mid-19th-century England. I haven’t read the first in the series yet, so was a bit behind the curve when it came to the relationships between characters, but I didn’t feel lost. I’ll go back and read book # 1, A Spy in the House, and might continue the series from there.