Thank you Usborne Books for this book in exchange for an honest review:

Synopsis:

The deadliest weapon is a girl with nothing to lose… Sarah is used to spying in the champagne-fuelled parties of Nazi Berlin. But her new mission is infinitely more deadly – tracking a lethal disease across bullet-torn Africa, to uncover the monster who would use it to create fifty million corpses. Her enemies think she is a terrified little girl. But she is a warrior set to burn them all. The deadliest weapon is a girl with nothing to lose… Sarah is used to spying in the champagne-fuelled parties of Nazi Berlin. But her new mission is infinitely more deadly – tracking a lethal disease across bullet-torn Africa, to uncover the monster who would use it to create fifty million corpses. Her enemies think she is a terrified little girl. But she is a warrior set to burn them all

Review:

Devil Darling Spy breaks my usual theory that sequels cannot be as amazing as the first but this proved me wrong.

Orphan Monster Spy was, in my opinion, a masterpiece. It had a great consistency throughout the book, from the characters to the plot, the whole book was written superbly. And Devil Darling Spy was no different.

Let’s dive into the setting because it is one of my favourites of all time. Devil Darling Spy, like Orphan Monster Spy is set in WWII, in the midst of the Nazi regime and is a thriller, ye you guessed it, spy novel!

We follow Sarah Goldstein on her grimy adventures as she is posing as Ursula Haller who is a German film star and social-light; when in reality Sarah is Jewish, angry but also a complete genius. This is set in Africa where a German doctor who has gone rogue and conducting dangerous and inhuman warfare experiments. Menace lurks in this dark time as the need to stop this German doctor heightens and Sarah is determined to put a stop to this monster.

Being a massive WWII buff who spent a fair amount of time studying this horrendous time of war, I have to appreciate the amount of effort that Killeen has gone through to capture the darkness of this time period, the ferocity of this war and the grim casualties that happen along the way. And as much as people think that this book is dark and doesn’t reflect the war correctly, I ask you to keep in mind that there was a German camp that used to skin their victims with tattoos and these were turned into gloves and lampshades. So it’s best to keep in mind that in times of war, nothing is too dark and nothing is out of the question when it comes of the human’s nasty capability.

With that in mind Killeen serves up the darkness of the war in a brutal yet interesting way that shows a true side of the darkness that could happen but also ensuring that the readers of this book don’t have nightmares for the rest of their lives.

There is a lot going on with this story which includes some of the following: racism, absent characters, drugs addictions, trauma, death and decay. With all these dark aspects of the book, don’t let it be off putting as the way that Killeen delivers this darkness is suitable and entertaining.

Overall this is a brilliant read and a realistic example of good vs evil with an action packed plot, intriguing characters and a book that has you wanting more and going off that ending I’m thinking that there should be a third book coming?? Or I hope so!! If you enjoy thriller books than this is the kind of one to add to your TBR pile!

Rating: 4/5

Publisher: Usborne Publishing

ISBN: 9781474942393