The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies

A delightful take on espionage fiction, laced liberally with wit, mystery, romance, and a bit of Muriel Spark. It’s 1951, and England is busy putting itself back together, from physical infrastructure to its notorious class system. The setting is Oxford, where we are introduced to two students who couldn’t be more unalike: Honorable Ginevra Bishop (destined to wear red lipstick and earn top marks) and Sidney Braithwaite (from a mining family and now a war veteran who wants a successful career). The two are brilliant at ignoring each other, but M15 has its ways, and soon enough Gin and Sidney are working together to track down a poison victim and seek out a Soviet spy. Who could be next? While there is plenty of antipathy between the two, there’s also quite a bit of romantic tension, which rears itself from times to time. For fans of historical cozies and fun-yet-frightening spy capers.—Brian Kenney