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It’s 1951 at Oxford University in England. Ginevra Bishop is eager to study and work hard. She comes from an upper-crust background and enjoys the privileges (let’s face it: she’s used to them) but not the restraints. She’s ready for some life and adventures. She’s also perfectly happy to be away from the father who’s never really been kind to her. She still feels keenly her mother’s loss years before.
Sidney Braithwaite is back at Oxford after a break of a couple of years. His background is not as privileged as Ginevra’s; he was raised in a mining village with limited means. He’s also still trying to somehow get rid of the nightmares that plague him from the war.
The two meet briefly at the library and then happen to end up in the company of a librarian late one night as he takes his last breaths. It could be he died a natural death. Or not.
Soon after the librarian’s funeral, both students are recruited by British intelligence, with the goal of finding a Soviet spy at Oxford. Sidney isn’t pleased at being reeled in: he had enough of working with intelligence during the war. Gin, on the other hand, is mostly eager to try it out. Not only does it sound intriguing, but she could use a paycheck: she needs her own money to fix a big problem.
So this unlikely pair work together, getting in far deeper than they may have expected (well, that’s more true of Ginevra; Sidney knew how bad it could get). And neither wants to admit that there’s something between them. A chemistry. But there are multiple reasons for that to go precisely nowhere.
The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is an entertaining book that kept me hooked with the spying, the mystery, and the budding romance. Gin is a plucky and smart character who I can just picture so well as that postwar independent woman of historical fiction: stockinged and lipsticked, well put together but also ready to get her hands dirty.
Sidney is a character not uncommon for that era, as well: haunted by the horrors of war and just barely making his way forward. He’s doing what he can to take care of family and himself and put the past behind him, but it’s still rocky. And as much as he’s attracted to Ginevra, he is sure there are a lot of perfectly solid reasons they couldn’t possibly be together.
The book features banter, misunderstandings, shared adventures, almost-kisses, near-misses of danger, etc. All the ingredients to make it lots of fun. Best of all is that it’s the first in a planned series, so I’m happy to know there will be more to come of the storyline and these characters.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes a dozen instances of moderate profanity, about 30 uses of mild language, and about 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content is limited to some kissing and brief references to affairs. Violence is mentioned in flashbacks to war, with injuries and deaths, and there is a murder.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
