Publisher: Aria
Release date: 7 July 2026
Back cover blurb: One mission. One fake husband. One very real problem. Maggie Flynn has finally earned her place at of MI5-but with promotion comes paperwork. No more disguises, no more danger, just meetings, memos, and the quiet realisation that life feels a little too safe. With her daughter away at university and her spirited mother pursuing her own adventures, Maggie's days in London are starting to feel decidedly ordinary. So when the chance arises to return to the field, she doesn't hesitate. The assignment: fly to Budapest and pose as the wife of a notorious British defector in order to smuggle him back to the UK. It should be a straightforward operation. But Maggie Flynn has never done straightforward-and what's waiting in Budapest is anything but routine. As Cold War tensions simmer and shadows linger on every corner, Maggie finds herself navigating a city steeped in secrets-and drawn to a mysterious stranger who may endanger the mission… or steal her heart.
Mandy Robotham - writing here as M.J. Robotham is one of my favourite historical fiction authors, and I have absolutely loved the two novels in the Mrs Spy series (and am secretly hoping they may be revisited at some point!)
Mrs Flynn (Maggie) is not your conventional spy, approaching 50, widowed with one daughter; she's an unlikely candidate for a covert MI5 mission. But her boss knows how capable she is, even if she's not sure she believes it herself.
Having been promoted to case officer since our last meeting, Maggie thinks she is happy with her lot. That is, until her boss, the head of MI5 assigns her her first mission as a potential agent. Her mission, should she choose to accept it, is to capture a former agent, a defector who wants to come back home.
Usually this would be an easy, straightforward assignment, but this one is off the books. For the agent has info that both British intelligence agencies will do anything to secure.
Maggie knows that her mission is potentially dangerous, but deep down she knows that she is capable.
And so off to Budapest she goes. It should be a simple mission, despite its risks, but as often happens in these scenarios, things don't exactly go to plan, and Maggie finds herself in the middle of secrets, lies and well - espionage, strangely enough!
A great read, and one I'd highly recommend.
The Spy and the Snake is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.
Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.