Mary Anna Evans’ first Faye Longchamp mystery, Artifacts, wasn’t even out yet when I first met her. Twenty years later, though, it’s interesting to see where she’s gone. She introduces a new character, Justine Byrne, in The Traitor Beside Me. And, I can agree with the notes at the end of the book, “Mary Anna Evans holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering physics and a Master of Science in Chemical engineering, and she is a license Professional Engineer. All of these things come in quite handy while she’s writing about Justine.” I can see Evans’ background in Justine and her late parents.

World War II novels are quite popular, but they seldom take readers into the homefront, and seldom into the world of spies here in the U.S. When we meet Justine Byrne, she’s welding ships in the Washington Navy Yard in late December, 1944. But, that’s just training for her real job, and she hasn’t been training long. It’s an emergency, though, and she’s given the name of Samantha Ogletree from Summerville, Georgia, assigned to work in a massive cryptoanalysis operation run by the army. Someone there is a spy, and Justine is assigned to poke around until she can find the person who caused the loss of a bridge and lives in Europe.

Justine’s handler didn’t expect her to be recognized, though, the minute she got off the bus at her new assignment. Karl Becker from the Signal Security Agency knew Justine’s parents, who were physicists. She’s suddenly working for Becker while her friend, Georgette, takes Justine’s identity as Samantha, and her original job as a secretary.

Justine and Georgette have an intense few weeks as they ask questions of the women they live with in a dorm-like environment, and as they watch fellow employees. They get closer and closer to the spy, as they uncover stories of women who have disappeared. Then, it’s Justine’s turn to become a threat to the spy, and she only has a few months of training to help her when she’s in danger.

Here’s my takeaway from The Traitor Beside Her. I liked Justine and Georgette, but they were so young, only 21! By late in the war, their training was rushed. There was no time to adequately prepare them for undercover work. They were lucky that Justine’s godmother provided them with a few weapons because their handler didn’t. “In undercover work, safety is constantly at odds with secrecy”, and it certainly was in this case.

Looking for a woman’s view of espionage on the homefront? Check out Mary Anna Evans’ The Traitor Beside Her.

Mary Anna Evans’ website is https://maryannaevans.com/

The Traitor Beside Her by Mary Anna Evans. Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, 2023. ISBN 9781464215582 (paperback), 368p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley from NetGalley for a journal review, with no promise of a positive review.