2) The Body at the Tower. ISBN: 9780763649685
3) The Traitor in the Tunnel. ISBN: 9780763653163
All by Y. S. Lee.
Re-read 1&2, Read 3 September 27, 2013
YA historical mysteries, half-Chinese female protagonist, light romance.
These are enjoyable, but there are a lot of mysteries left in the stories.
Particularly,
the role and scope of the Agency is puzzlingly unclear, as is their
reach. Mary herself is a puzzle - able to pass as an elderly lady AND a
12-year old "penniless lord" working boy (within the same day, mind).
There are also some liberties taken with the Royals in the palace in
the last book - I don't care how dissolute poor Bertie was, or how
pretty he thought her, there's no way that the prince of the realm would
act that way around a servant. Likewise the enemies of the second and
third book are left puzzlingly un-motivated. I don't know why the
blackmailer kept asking for more, and got violent when he failed. I
don't know why the traitor decided that he needed to PERSONALLY handle
guncotton. Even the first villain's aims are unclear - there are
reasons to suspect the motivation, but the problem isn't exactly solved.
And speaking of solving problems, I find myself
increasingly irritated at how the heritage situation has been resolved
(or if there are future works, at least how it has been dealt with thus
far). It seems upon reflection that the author simply didn't wish to
deal with the complications she introduced in the first book, and so
they were made to vanish in awfully convenient ways. First by
unnecessary housefire and death (and when there is a fire, people put
their lives in danger by fetching what they most love - I find it very
hard to accept that a certain item was simply left behind after the
rescue was completed.) Then, another unnecessary death (with the
attendant inability to convey any information at all) ties the whole
thing off quite nicely.
I think that's taking the easy way out, and I would
very much like to have seen Mary handling her heritage, instead of
having it conveniently whisked away from her to leave her burden-free to
head into the future.
Other than those quibbles, they are quippy, quick,
fun, well-set, and enjoyable, even on a second read. I've been unable
to determine if they are a trilogy, or if there are other books
forthcoming. I do hope for the latter, and if so, I hope that the
heritage question is brought up again, because that is the real sticking
point of dislike for me so far.
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