First published 2022
Fenna Vos performs as an assistant to an escape artist, but she actually creates all the illusions herself. Growing up poor in Michigan's Copper Country taught her to rely on herself and control her environment. When British intelligence recruits her during World War II, they want her skills to design escape aids that will help Allied operatives evade German capture. MI9 needs inventors for their unconventional team as the war reaches a critical point. Fenna reluctantly accepts the assignment and begins creating tools to thwart enemy forces. But when her superiors question her loyalty, she finds herself pulled directly into dangerous field operations. The deeper she goes into her mission, the more she realizes that her greatest challenge won't be outsmarting the Germans. Her own traumatic past threatens to trap her in ways no physical escape can solve.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, thriller, 21st-century, espionage
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Michigan, United Kingdom
Period: World War II
496 pages · Paperback · Sourcebooks Landmark
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness