Will I love The Spy Coast?

This plot about aging CIA folks attempting to live a normal retirement but getting sucked into a mystery in their quiet Maine town seemed plausible to me. The premise also provided a nice way to lighten up what could otherwise have been a very heavy story, as it seemed to me the absolute worst couldn't happen in the end. I enjoyed the flashbacks to the old spy's former life in Europe.

I love this author, and this is one of my favorite books. I was delighted by the complex characters and the ingenious and breathtaking twists. At the same time, the incongruence of the situation fascinated me and made me smile.

At first, I thought, “Why would I want to read a story about a bunch of Martini-drinking, chicken-raising old fogies living in the middle of nowhere? I’m glad I did. It turned out like nothing I expected. As the book cover advertises: “Once a spy, always a spy.”

I love the craggy Maine coast, and I love spy stories, so this book thrilled me from page one. I was intrigued and unnerved when a dead body showed up on retired CIA agent Maggie Bird’s snowy front yard. I was scared by the clear warning that Maggie’s past as a spy was about to suck her back into the spy trade and into mortal danger.

I felt disaster about to strike as the story took me to exotic and scary locales, from mini streets in Bangkok and Istanbul to more urban settings from London to Malta. I struggled to… show more.