All the Lt Leary books are the same: Go to a place under the assumption of ordered action (or usually even a peaceful unimportant diplomatic mission), shit explodes, and it gets heroically solved by Daniel Leary with impeccable manners, thanks to Adele Mundy’s librarian/spy superpowers with her data unit and some hacking.
You don’t see me complaining (yet) though – what works, works. It’s a ton of light-hearted fun. I wish we had less need to get reminded of both of the protagonists’ primary characteristics all the time (Daniel can only swagger so much while being the perfect rogue-gentleman with a side interest in xenobiology, and Adele can only be a perfectly correct socially and militarily awkward superspy, before the reader yells “I GET IT”). However, we finally meet Daniel’s hypercompetent politician sister, Deidre, who is all sorts of cool and gets Adele her ancestral home back, which I was surprisingly invested in. Simple is great when it works.
This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.
Plot summary
Beware: full spoilers! Also probably incomplete and possibly incomprehensible.
Daniel and Adele continue their adventures, now starring as a team from the beginning, with Adele now being formally employed as spy for the navy. The details don’t really matter – same as always, go place, thing blow up, heroically fix everything with impeccable manners and a focus on polite espionage. Towards the wrap-up, Deidre shows up, Daniel’s hyper-competent sister, and gets Adele her ancestral home back, as well as some investment advice.
