Y. S. Lee

A follow-up to A Spy in the House finds mid-19th-century orphan Mary Quinn tackling a latest case in which her efforts to discover a murderer's identity force her to relive harrowing childhood experiences.

The Body at the Tower

Savindi Jinasena

** spoiler alert **
           I will say that I’m glad I was able to finish the book. I’m not a fan of leaving books unfinished, even if the story is not the greatest. I persevered and finished it at midnight despite it being a painful read.

After reading "A Spy In The House", I was so excited to read this book and I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. It left much to be desired and I’m debating if I should read the third book in the series or not.

In comparison to "A Spy In The House" I felt the plot in "The Body At The Tower" was poor and it left a lot of unanswered questions. I’m not sure if the author is planning to tie the loose ends in third book, but there were some ends that should have been tied up at the conclusion of the book. The plot didn’t interest me at all which was disappointing, considering that I really enjoyed the first book in the series. There was too much description and not a lot going on to drive the story forward. The positive aspect which turned into a negative aspect because there wasn’t any development was the argument between Anne and Felicity concerning The Agency.

More than the plot I was honestly disappointed with the characters. I wasn’t emotionally invested in them at all. For the most part I found Mary to be annoying and irritable. There wasn’t much to like about her in this book and I didn’t feel that she matured as a character, despite the book taking place a year after she joined The Agency. I liked James Easton a lot in the first book and I feel bad for saying that I was irritated at him the whole time as well. He seemed to spend a lot of time kissing Mary rather than doing anything else, making his presence feel unnecessary. I didn’t much care for the secondary character except for Octavius Jones. He was interesting and I wonder if he’ll appear in the third book.

Overall, "The Body At The Tower" was a disappointing and painful read. It was nothing like A Spy In The House and to be honest it upsets me because I had such high expectations for it. I’m hoping that the third book is much better, even though I’m not sure if I’ll pick it up.

My Rating: 2/5

Would I recommend it? No

This book is a lot more emotional than the first. Mary decides to intentionally confront her past by immersing herself in the role of a preteen boy, much as she did as a child in order to protect herself following her parents' deaths. There are a lot of aspects of her past she had previously ignored and is now trying to to come to terms with, which makes the book as a whole intensely emotional. I appreciated how much of her struggles were not just about the poverty and desperation she lived with, but also the struggle to decide how much to show regarding her race. She can pass as white most of the time, but occasionally she's confronted by someone else who is Chinese and she has to decide whether she's willing to face the feeling of inadequacy she has from both sides - whether she's not white enough for wider society or not Chinese enough for other Chinese immigrants. Plus how much of her feelings are tied up in her grief for her father and wanting to honor and acknowledge him versus the fact that he's dead and she still needs to live her life as safely as possible. It's just a super complex topic that Lee handles so well.

Sheila

More like 3.5; definitely a fun book with a good mystery plot that had a decent twist at the end. Character development was pretty good, overall it kept me entertained!

Elad Schulman

The Body at the Tower is the second book in the Agency series. 


Returning for another mission, Mary Quinn is sent to a building site (for the Big Ben) to learn more about the mysterious fall leading to one of the workers deaths. And of course, James Easton returns, much to everybody's pleasure.

I really enjoyed the second book. As readers, we got to learn more about Mary's past, and we got to see her open up more towards James. The mystery itself was a little more interesting, and easier to follow, since when i was reading the first book, it was a little hard at times to keep track of the mystery itself. 

The only thing confusing about this book was when the POV's changed. There wasn't really a name at the beginning of the chapters, so it took me a while to realize what character (Mary or James) was narrating the chapter. But i really liked how Y.S. Lee had 2 perspectives, it made the reading more interesting. 

Gonna be a bit of spoilers: 

It was also confusing when Mary was playing Mark Quinn. When she was narrating the chapter, I had to keep on reminding myself that she was playing the role of a boy, not her usual Mary.

No more spoilers! 
Overall though, i really enjoyed the book, and I just want to get the 3rd book! A good series that continues with the characters throughout each mystery and allowing the readers to learn more about each character is hard to find, but this series definitely does a good job of it!

Sepia

Connor 

Emma

Cassidy

Julie D.

Maura

As a nearly full-fledged member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit based in Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls, Mary Quinn, disguised as a poor apprentice builder, must brave the sinister underworld of Victorian London in order to unmask a murderer.

The Body at the Tower

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