A Spy in the House

A Spy in the House
By Ying S. Lee
Candlewick Press, 2010. 335 pgs. Young Adult

Sentenced to death for thievery, Mary Quinn is drugged by her jailer and wakes up in Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. As she finishes her education, Mary learns she can join the Agency, the all-female investigative agency run by the proprietors of the school. Eager to do so and to please her new employers, Mary joins the household of a merchant suspected of smuggling precious Indian artifacts into England as her first mission. Mary learns little during the first part of her mission; disappointed by this, she begins digging around more and encounters danger and gains an unlikely partner in her search for information.

I had high expectations for this book and was disappointed. There is nothing wrong with it; the book is fine in every way. The mystery itself is engaging; there is a mystery concerning Mary’s past; and a bit of romance spices the book up. And with fewer mysteries being published for young adults, this is a good addition. But I wanted something more and the book did not deliver that for me. If I had had lower expectations, I think I would have enjoyed this much more.

MN