Remember when I complained about Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune because it had too much cryptocurrency in it? I just finished Mark de Castrique’s mystery, Desperate Spies. It contains discussions of the impact of quantum computing on the country, and the lack of cybersecurity, but I sailed through this one. As much as I like the characters in The Thursday MurderClub mysteries, seventy-five-year-old retired FBI agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater is just as interesting.

Ethel runs a boarding house for FBI agents, Secret Service agents, police, and others in law enforcement. The exception is her double-first-cousin-twice-removed, Jesse Cooper. She takes Jesse to the mall to train him in surveillance, and they meet up with FBI agent Cassandra Crawford. CiCi has a confidential informant who wants to meet with Ethel. Tony Bagatelos is a lawyer, but he’s the brother of a Mafia don. He owes Ethel a favor. Eighteen years earlier, she was on-site when a sting operation went wrong, and Tony’s daughter was shot by a Russian. The killer was shot, but his brother went to prison for twenty years based on Ethel’s testimony. Now, he wants to warn her that the man is out of prison, and wants to kill her. It’s just a five minute meeting over coffee, but Tony is shot in the parking garage, and Jesse is the only witness.

Because Ethel has connections to the head of the FBI, a local homicide detective, and a number of other high-ranking officials, she steps in to run her own investigation. There are connections to a Senator’s office, the Mafia, and Russians. But, Ethel is convinced Tony had secrets he wanted to share before his murder. And, she ropes in some friends to bring all these assorted parties together.

I love Ethel’s connections, including her friends, the UFOs, United Flying Octogenarians. There’s always a couple twists in these books, including characters who aren’t what I suspected. And, the Senator is a little too realistic for comfort, a politician whose staff is trying to hide his dementia from the public and media. The media cooperates in covering it up, while the man blithers away, leaking confidential information.

Ethel Fiona Crestwater is a delightful, strong character is Desperate Spies.

Mark de Castrique’s website is https://www.markdecastrique.com/

Desperate Spies by Mark de Castrique. Severn House, 2025, 240p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley from the publisher, through NetGalley, with no promise of a positive review.