Wow, I did not think that book two could be better than book one but I was wrong! I enjoyed following my friend Ellie (because she feels like a friend) as she goes on more adventures for the good side.

I loved getting to know more of the seemingly sketchy characters that she has interacted with in her less-than-legal side business and watching them work together.

The only bad thing I had

This book was so good! I want to see more from this author in the future!! I couldn't put this book down. What a page turner!!!

Anyone else enjoy a book series? I love them, especially historical fiction mysteries. I read the first Electra McDonnell story last year and loves it. A cracker locksmith thief turned British agent during WWII was right up my alley and I was incredibly excited to get an e- arc of The Key to Deceit, Electra’s second outing.

Electra USA woman raised to be independent and will not back down from a challenge.Ao when Major Ramsey comes calling with a new assignment she most certainly is all in.

What I’ve really enjoyed over these books is Ellie’s spirit of adventure and tenacious determination to join in and not be set aside because she is a woman. Even better is her ability to puzzle out what’s going on before her superiors!

This was a great edition to the series and I’m excited to see where Ellie will go next and with whom.

3.75 stars

This new historical mystery series followup is a fun read. Locksmith and former burglars Ellie and her Uncle Mick got blackmailed into helping the WWII effort in the last book. There are times when the government intelligence services need to retrieve information from behind locked doors. So Ellie and Mick have set aside their extra-legal activities for the time being unless helping the Crown.

This time around, they need Ellie's help with a locked bracelet on the wrist of a murdered young woman found in the Thames. What they find inside indicates that the victim was possibly passing secrets to the Germans including photographs of the London dock neighborhoods.

Ellie is independent, stubborn and not willing to put up with being relegated to a subsidiary role because she's female. There is a bit of tension because she's attracted to both her intelligence supervisor, an aristocratic and steely Major, and to her longtime family friend Felix.

Lots of action, interesting characters and a well-paced narrative leading up to the climactic scenes which occur during the first nights of the Blitz. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ellie McDonnell gets her second chance to work with British Intelligence just as the Germans start bombing London is this second historical mystery set during World War II.

Ellie is approached by Major Ramsey who is actually looking for her Uncle Mick. A young woman's body has been recovered from the Thames and she's wearing an unusual, locked bracelet on her wrist. Ellie is quick to pick the lock but that just begins her work investigating this possible spy taking photos for the Germans.

Ellie and Major Ramsey follow clues to try to locate the cache of films taken to help the Germans with their targeting of London before the films can be claimed by the German spymaster.

Meanwhile, Ellie is pursuing a mystery of her own. Her mother, who was convicted of murdering her husband, died in prison just months after Ellie was born. Ellie wants to know more about her mother, but doesn't want to question her Uncle Mick who was her father's brother, and tracks down some people who knew her at the time. Her investigation leads her to believe that her mother was innocent and protecting someone.

Ellie is also dealing with some romantic issues as her relationship with Felix whom she has known for years might be entering a new phase even as she is becoming more and more intrigued by Major Ramsey.

This was a fast-paced and engaging historical mystery with a very sympathetic main character. I look forward to more adventures.

4.5/5 stars

This is book 2 of a mystery series set in 1940s London. Electra (Ellie) McDonnell is a young woman raised in a family of thieves and an expert locksmith. She and her Uncle Mick are apprehended and recruited by Major Ramsey, a straitlaced head of a covert war operation. In this installment, she is called upon to use her skills in tracking down and foiling a German espionage ring who are recruiting English citizens to photograph strategic air bombing sites.

I’m really enjoying this series so far. Ellie is a spunky, independent, and headstrong lead who is a pleasure to keep up with, and there are hints of a love triangle developing that promises to be interesting. There’s also a well-fleshed out cast of supporting characters who are entertaining and keep the plots moving along behind the scenes. I found this an intriguing angle for a plot that I had never thought of or researched. If you’re looking to find a new and entertaining historical mystery series, start with the initial A Peculiar Combination. I’m glad I discovered it.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for providing the free early arc of The Key to Deceit for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review.

Ashley Weaver is back with the next book in the new Electra McDonnell series. THE KEY TO DECEIT takes place right after A PECULIAR COMBINATION. This time around, Major Ramsey ends up needing Ellie's help in opening a locked bracelet found on a the body of a woman pulled from the Thames which leads to the gang getting back together (with a new addition of Merriweather who is delightful) to try and stop a Germain spy ring.

Ellie still finds herself in a potential love triangle and I am looking forward to seeing how that all plays out. While I felt like this book didn't have as much edge-of-your-seat action as the first book did, I was fully engrossed in the story with Weaver's larger than life characters.

Overall this is a great WWII historical fiction quasi-cozy mystery series featuring a witty female protagonist that isn't defined by the men around her.

The second book in this series finds Ellie and her locksmith uncle again skirting the law and assisting the British military at the start of the blitz. A young woman's body is found in the Thames and Ellie's lock picking skills are needed to remove an unusual bracelet from her wrist. She finds herself again assisting Major Ramsey to learn the woman's identity, and subsequently involves other family members to break up a network of German spies.

I enjoyed the mystery and the wartime London backdrop but the love triangle between Ellie, upper class and proper Major Ramsey, and Felix, who comes from a similar background to Ellie, is tedious and unbelievable and detracts from the storyline. I hope the author moves away from this subplot in future books.

I have been an Ashley Weaver fan since I read book one of the Amory Ames series. I became a bigger fan when I discovered she was a fellow librarian. Always looking forward to the next book Amory book, I was so excited to find that she was beginning a new series featuring Elecktra McDonnell. A young lady from a family that walks a thin line between theft and locksmithing. Set in a different time with a heroine from a different class, Weaver has shifted gears but the action and adventure is just as thrilling.

Set at the start of WWII in London, Elektra "Ellie" McDonnell, has a run in with Major Ramsey. The major needed her uncles help with a job and Ellie became involved. In book two the major is back again asking for help. This time a young lady was recovered from the Thames with an unusual bracelet locked on her arm.

Another theme running through the books is the mystery of Ellie's mother. She had been convicted of murdering Ellie's father but seems to have been innocent. Ellie is looking for clues as to what really happened that day.

Working as a librarian, you always have go to authors to suggest to patrons and Ashley Weaver is mine for historical mysteries! You won't be able to put them down.

Ellie and her family are thieves. But they are very likeable thieves. In the first book of the series, they meet their match in Major Ramsey. Using their past against them, he enlists them to help out British Intelligence. It's 1940 and the way hasn't moved to London yet. But in The Key to Deceit, the second book in the system, Major Ramsey has a problem. There is a Nazi spy ring operating in London. They are taking pictures of sensitive areas to help the Nazis know where to bomb.

Major Ramsey needs the help of Ellie, her Uncle Mick, and her various criminal relatives and associates. Complicating the matter, Ellie is falling in love with, not one, but two different men.

In a fun, well-written, novel, we follow the exploits of Ellie, Major Ramsey, and her family through the streets of London. I highly recommend this book.

This second book in the Electra McDonnell series finds Ellie and her family of dubious (but useful) skills in the service of His Majesty during World War II. The war has progressed and the Blitz has begun. Bodies are found floating in the Thames and Ellie and her family are pressed into service once again, this time in an attempt to uncover a suspected spy ring.
This is currently a popular historical era if the number of WWII books available is any indication and this is an excellent series.

Ellie McDonnell and her family (and other criminal associates) are back in cahoots with the stoic Major Ramsey after a dead woman with a mysterious locked bracelet and clock key is fished out of the Thames. Major Ramsey pulls in Ellie, Uncle Mick, and Felix to help chase down a potential German spy on British soil. In parallel with all these goings on, Ellie is also pursuing the mystery of her mother's potential framing for the murder of her father.

As with the first book, I like the setting, the wartime espionage angle, and always enjoy a partnership of the freewheeling criminal with a straitlaced partner. I'll be picking up the third book to see where Weaver goes with the plotline around Ellie's mother and her missing cousin.

However, I thought this book wasn't as well paced as the first of the series. The mystery felt rushed and underdeveloped and I felt like there was too much time of Ellie contemplating her potential love triangle. It's a bit of a pet peeve when a character is supposed to be extremely perceptive and yet engages in lots of rumination about how the clearly telegraphed romantic interest just doesn't like her that much. However, I enjoyed enough aspects of this book that I look forward to the third in the series.

I read a LOT of historical mysteries, but tend to prefer mysteries set in the middle ages and renaissance. The Key to Deceit, set during World War II, is an exception to that generalization. The Key to Deceit is the second volume in Ashley Weaver's Electra McDonnell series. I haven't read the first Electra McDonnell, but that didn't interfere at all with my enjoyment of this title. Weaver tucks in bits of backstory that fit seamlessly into her narrative, rather than seeming like the heavy handed detours that backstory can become.

(Digression: seriously, shouldn't there be a reward for series mystery authors who can work in backstory without leaving you feeling that you've been bludgeoned with it?)

So, the backstory here is that Ellie (Electra) and her uncle work together as safe crackers—also as legitimate locksmiths, you can see the overlap. Apparently in book 1, the two of them were given a choice by an intelligence office, Major Ramsey: they could join the war effort and not be prosecuted for a crime or.... Well, they're patriotic, if not always on the right side of the law, so you know what choice they made.

The case this time around focuses on an unknown woman whose body washes up along the Thames. She carries no ID and wears an unusual bracelet held in place with a lock. That's where Ellie comes in. Once Ellie has picked the lock on the bracelet, even more questions are raised. And then there's the little bag of loose gems that also holds a key for winding a clock. With that beginning, Ellie, Major Ramsey, and Ellie's uncle quickly find themselves hunting down a German spy ring.

Part of what's fun about this series is that, while Major Ramsey is a no-nonsense military man, Ellie and her uncle—and the criminal "colleagues" they pull into the investigation—are definitely ready to break the rules and have fun doing it. This crew includes jewelers who specialize in "paste" copies of heirloom jewelry, sellers of goods of dubious provenance, a safe-cracking colleague who prefers to do things the quick way using explosives, and Ellie's beau (maybe? maybe not?) who has a knack for forgery.

The Key to Deceit is an absolutely perfect summer read: lively, funny, and well-plotted. Of course, those characteristics are equally delightful in a book in fall, winter, and spring, so regardless of the season in which you're reading this review, I urge you to track down The Key to Deceit and to keep an eye out for Ashley Weaver's next volume in this delightful series.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

The family that B&Es together, stays together 🗝️

Synopsis: After years of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor - well, to themselves, anyway - Ellie McDonnell and her family have turned over a new leaf as they help the government’s war effort. It’s true that the straight-laced Major Ramsey didn’t give them much choice, but still, Ellie must admit she doesn’t miss breaking and entering as much as she might have thought. What she does miss is the challenge of unlocking an impossible code and the adrenaline rush that comes from being somewhere she shouldn’t.

Thanks to #netgalley for this fun read, the second in the Electra McDonnell series from @ashleyweaverauthor

I love that Ellie’s entire family is (was?) involved in a life of crime. The family that B&Es together, stays together 😆 The romance subplot was a little much for me in this one (just pick one already!), but overall it was a great #historicalmystery

I enjoyed Ashley Weaver's other series and wanted to give this one a try. I missed the first book and will probably have to give it a try. This one was overall a rather interesting look back at how the War could have created spies. Some of the seemed a bit mundane and Ellie could have been a bit more antimated. I will however look for the next in the series when it comes out.

London 1940

Delightful!

This second of the series returns readers to the joy of Ellie, Uncle Mick and Major Ramsey forming their unlikely partnership to solve another mystery. The electricity between Ellie and Major Ramsey and the resulting banter is such fun.

Here's a feel for the banter:

Major: "There is no letting you Miss McDonnell. I know perfectly well if I don't come and collect you in the morning, you'll be down at Waterloo hurtling about on your own."

Ellie: "I do believe you are really getting a feel for my character Major."

Period elements add to the novel with England at war with Germany.

Look forward to this series continuing. Fans of historical mysteries, don't miss this one!

The Key to Deceit, An Electra McDowell Mystery, Ashley Weaver (Publish Date 6/21/22)

While I enjoyed the first book in this new series, A Peculiar Combination, the author really hit her stride with this second delightful historical mystery, The Key to Deceit. Electra (“Ellie”) McDowell is an independent woman finding her way with a questionable past. In lieu of criminal charges, she and her Uncle Mick (her long-time caregiver) are tasked into service for the British government during the early part of WWII. In The Key to Deceit, Major Ramsey a tight-laced British military man solicits the services of Ellie, Uncle Mick and their colorful group of acquaintances for their special and, perhaps, illegal skills when the British government discovers the body of a woman in the River Thames that it suspects is part of a German spy network photographing critical locations in London.

This historical mystery has all the traditional elements as well as blossoming romantic tensions and a secondary storyline where we start to learn more about Ellie’s family and past. I choose to pick up A Peculiar Combination first because I like to start with the first book in series when practicable, but there is enough backstory weaved into The Key to Deceit that you could start there as well. I devoured this book less than twenty-four hours and cannot wait for the next book in the series to be released so I can see the further development of the characters.

I usually have no problem speeding through an Ashley Weaver mystery, but this one didn’t quite work for me and took me a while to get through. The mystery was overshadowed by the love triangle, which felt rather forced. I’ll definitely read a third installment, but I think I’d prefer another installment in Weaver’s Amory Ames series instead.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The mystery was compelling but got bogged down by the repeated wordy references to Ellie's love interests. Somehow the characters felt much flatter in this book than in the first one.

It's mid-summer 1940 in London. It's been a while since Electra (Ellie) McDonnell and her loving, patriotic, but somewhat larcenous family have been pushed onto the straight and narrow by Major Ramsey. Ellie, if she's honest doesn't miss the lawbreaking so much as the adrenalin rush that comes with it so, when the Major shows up with a new task, she's happy to oblige. An unidentified woman's body has been pulled out of the Thames. On her wrist is a bracelet with a locket, locked of course. Given Ellie's skills at lock picking, she is the perfect choice to open it. Turns out there's more to the woman and the bracelet than first appeared and now, with the aid of other members of her family, Ellie and the Major are on the trail of German operatives just as the Blitz begins.

I read the first book in the Electra McDonnell series by Ashley Weaver and really enjoyed it so was delighted to receive this second book, The Key to Deceit, from Netgalley and St Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Happily, this one was just as entertaining as the first. This is a fun fast cozy historical mystery with plenty of action and quirky characters as well as a bit of romance and I devoured it in one sitting. Although it could be read as a stand-alone, I would recommend reading the first since it introduces the characters and gives the background of how the McDonnells became involved with the Major.