A Spy in the House (The Agency, #1)

by Lee Y.S.

Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls where she is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.

• ISBN10: 0763640670
• ISBN13: 9780763640675
• Publish Date: 9 March 2010
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Candlewick Press (MA)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 335
• Language: English

Reviews

[Heather]

Mary Quinn is given a last minute reprieve from the gallows and is sent to a school for girls.  She is savvy enough to know that this is very strange.  She doesn't know what is behind it until years later when she finishes her education and is offered a place in a detective agency run by the headmistresses of the school.

Mary has secrets of her own.  She is an orphan and knows that her father was Chinese.  In 1850s London Chinese people are not admitted to polite society.  She explains away her dark coloring by saying that she is Black Irish.  That settles things for most English people but Chinese people she meets recognize the truth about her.

The Agency places its agents undercover as maids or ladies' companions because women are considered not smart enough to be spies.  They can infiltrate places that men would never be able to get.

On Mary's first assignment she runs into James Easton in a closet while snooping.  He is snooping about the family she is assigned to also but for different reasons.  They are forced to work together.  Mary and James have great chemistry in this series.  It is a slow romance that has many reasonable obstacles.





The Agency has always placed female operatives but one of the founders wants to expand.  She agrees to let Mary go undercover as a boy in order to get a large contract.  They are hired to figure out part of the reason why a man was murdered at the construction site of the Houses of Parliament.  Mary knows nothing about construction but is trying to fit in with her new crew when an engineer comes to do a review of the building practices.  It is a physically and emotionally battered and beaten down James Easton.

I think that this may be my favorite book of the series.  I don't usually say that about second books.  They are usually a let down.  In this one the author has already established the characters so well that you care about them and their adventures.  You get a better idea of the dangerous world of the extremely poor in London.  For me this book was more about life in the city and the class and gender and racial barriers that both characters are bending than the mystery.





Mary is on assignment undercover in Buckingham Palace to investigate some thefts.  This gives the author the chance to examine the lives of maids in Victorian times.  They worked all the time.  They were not supposed to be seen by members of the royal family so they had to freeze or hide if any of the nobility came into a room.  They are also vulnerable to any male member of the nobility who take a fancy to them.

While investigating the thefts, Mary stumbles on a scandal involving the Prince of Wales.  One of his highborn friends was killed in an opium den by a Chinese man who has the same name as her supposedly dead father.  She decides to investigate this and has to face the truth of her Chinese heritage that she has managed to avoid for most of her life.

Right when she is starting to make progress, she is recalled because the Agency finds out that the engineering firm owned by James Easton will be doing some top secret work under the palace.  They don't want her to get involved with him again because he has complicated her other cases.  Should she stay or should she go?





This was a great last book.  It ties up a lot of loose ends by going back to the villains of book one and seeing how everyone has changed in the intervening years.  It is hard to talk about this book much without spoilers for the series.

I binged this series over the course of a week.  I absolutely loved it.  On top of complex mysteries there were discussions of the intersections of race and class and gender at the time.  Add a very fun and banter-filled romance on top of that and this is a great series even if mysteries aren't usually your favorite.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

[celinenyx]

It's the nineteenth century. Mary was rescued from the gallows to become part of an all-female detective agency. If you let that sink in for a second, you'll realize that A Spy in the House is not realistic historical fiction - it's wishful thinking, it's social commentary, and no, it's not true to the time period.

Yet I really enjoyed the book. A Spy in the House is like James Bond in petticoats with a side serving of feminism.

[rakesandrogues]

Published at Muggle-Born.net

Mary Lang (or Quinn) is witty, fiery, and independent - everything I love about a female protagonist. She's brave, fierce, clever, never leaning towards the stereotypes of the Victorian era. I grew to relate with Mary, especially when she uncovered secrets from her past. It was honestly the moment when I thought to myself, Wow this might be my new favorite book. Y.S. Lee has created such a vibrant character that is seriously lacking in today's YA market. (I'd explain more, but that would be dishing out the book and Mary's secrets!)

As for the other characters, my first impressions of many of them were negative, but they proved themselves to be worthy characters as the novel progressed. Other than Mary, James Easton would have to be my favorite character. Mary's accomplice and an accomplished civil engineer, James will not fail to charm readers. His playful banters with Mary are comedic yet full of unresolved sexual tension between the two of them. The book is definitely not a romance, but readers do feel the chemistry between James and Mary start to build.

The writing was fast-paced and fluid. Throughout the whole book, I felt no need to skip over filler sentences because there were none. I am usually guilty of skimming paragraphs due to the plot's excitement, but I can assure you that I read every word in A SPY IN THE HOUSE. Lee kept me guessing throughout the whole book. I was hooked into the mystery, the time period, the romance. I could not put this book down once I started. And when I did stop (to have dinner), I spent the whole time spacing out thinking about the book. A SPY IN THE HOUSE merged all my favorite aspects of a good novel all into one. This is exactly what I am always looking for.

I cannot wait to get my hands on the next installment on the series. I am always reluctant about sequels and further installments but I don't think that is going to happen here. It really is too early to say this but I will do it anyway: The Agency Series and Y.S. Lee are my new favorite series and author, respectively. I should point out that a five-star rating is a very very rare thing indeed, so this is one of those few instances where I am going to say: YOU MUST READ THIS ONE.