Member Review

A great second outing for Maggie Flynn, novice spy extraordinaire. After solving her late husband’s murder, Maggie is now working for MI5 at a desk job and babysitting Oleg, a Russian defector.
When her boss offers her the opportunity to progress her career she is not sure whether the mission is worth going for or whether it is a poisoned chalice.
He asks her to go undercover to Budapest and bring home a double defector spy, Fitzroy Carver but with no backup, and completely on her own.
After a bit of research she decides to take on the mission but is shocked to discover the agent is an old drunk who makes it very difficult to be rescued.
Dodging danger behind the iron curtain during the Cold War, Maggie must use all her espionage skills to escape alive and with the help of some new Hungarian friends she decides to drive Carver through Europe in a VW camper van.
This was a great novel, very exciting with some fabulous new characters whom I really warmed to. There is even a possible love interest for Maggie despite her loyalty to her dead husband who still whispers encouragement in her ear.
Frank, an old retired spy who was in the previous book, also talks to Maggie inside her head, even though he is now retired and living in the Canary Islands.
I liked the setting of Budapest and the period descriptions of Soviet Hungary as well as all the 1960s references including The Beatles and Sean Connery as Bond. The latter reminded me of my childhood and my teenage love of James Bond books!
This is a fantastic read which I whizzed through in a few days- I definitely recommend “The Spy and the Snake” and look forward to Maggie’s next adventure.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.