Title: The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies
Author: Kate Westbury
Genre: Historical fiction, mystery
Rating: 4.2 out of 5
Oxford, England, 1951 – The Honorable Ginevra Bishop likes red lipstick, clever retorts, and earning top marks in her tutorials. She’s following her mother’s footsteps by studying at Oxford, eager to prove she’s more than a debutante.
Sidney Braithwaite likes brooding, Latin, and ignoring his nightmares. He’s determined to forge a new life for himself at Oxford, far from his childhood mining village and free from memories of the war.
Though Gin and Sidney have little in common, the British Security Service is keen to unite her charm with his espionage experience: there’s a Soviet spy at the university, and the agent tracking them down was poisoned. MI5 wants Gin and Sidney to pick up the trail and identify the informant before more sensitive information is compromised. As a team, the pair of undergraduates clash in personality, upbringing, and taste––but have a connection neither can deny. Gin and Sidney must unite their respective talents to follow the clues before they’re caught in the traitor’s crosshairs…if the sparks flying between them don’t blow up the operation first.
This felt a tiny bit slow at first, trying to get into the setting and time frame, but I ended up liking it a lot. I do love historical fiction, especially WWII historical fiction—which this isn’t, but it’s linked—and I definitely enjoyed the historical aspects of this. I really liked Gin and her friends. They were a lot of fun. I also liked Sidney, although I wanted to smack him a couple of times. The two of them together were believable and a joy to read.
Kate Westbury teaches Latin. The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is her debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press | Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review.)
