Summary: Never underestimate a librarian. Comfortably padded and in her middle years, Shona McMonagle may look bookish and harmless, but her education at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls has left her with a deadly expertise in everything from martial arts to quantum physics. It has also left her with a bone-deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, that scurrilous novel that spread scandalous untruths about the finest educational institution in Edinburgh. Her skills, her deceptively mild appearance, and her passionate loyalty make Shona the perfect recruit for a new and interesting project: Time-travel to Tzarist Russia, prevent a gross miscarriage of romance, and - in any spare time - see to it that only the right people get murdered. It's a big job, but no task is too daunting for a Head Girl from Miss Blaine's.
Shona McMonagle may look bookish and harmless, but her education at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls has left her with a deadly expertise in everything from martial arts to quantum physics. It has also left her with a bone-deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the novel that spread scandalous untruths about the finest educational institution in Edinburgh. These skills make Shona the perfect recruit for a new and interesting project: Time-travel to Tzarist Russia, prevent a gross miscarriage of romance, and - in any spare time - see to it that only the right people get murdered.
Never underestimate a librarian. Comfortably padded and in her middle years, Shona McMonagle may look bookish and harmless, but her education at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls has left her with a deadly expertise in everything from martial arts to quantum physics. It has also left her with a bone-deep loathing for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, that scurrilous novel that spread scandalous untruths about the finest educational institution in Edinburgh. Her skills, her deceptively mild appearance, and her passionate loyalty make Shona the perfect recruit for a new and interesting project: Time-travel to Tzarist Russia, prevent a gross miscarriage of romance, and - in any spare time - see to it that only the right people get murdered. It's a big job, but no task is too daunting for a Head Girl from Miss Blaine's.
Present-day Edinburgh librarian Shona McMonagle responds to the call when Miss Blaine, founder of the Marcia Blaine School for Girls, recruits her to time travel to czarist Russia to complete a mission. But before the mission is completed, Shona must figure out what it is; presumably her education at Miss Blaine's school will help her do that. Sure enough, Shona quickly comes to believe that her mission is to marry off wealthy heiress Lidia Ivanovna to the proper suitor. However, someone is out to prevent a successful resolution, and there are numerous attempts on Shona's life. Firmly set in Russia with fascinating details of the life and times of the people, from princesses to serfs, woven through the story, and with Shona cleverly using historical clues gained from conversations to piece together facts about her new environment, this humorous romp includes plot twists and well-delineated, quirky, characters. Readers will eagerly await future installments.--Sue O'Brien Copyright 2018 Booklist
Author notes provided by Syndetics
Olga Wojtas was born and raised in Edinburgh, but canny readers will have spotted her lack of a traditional Scottish name. Her father was one of the Polish soldiers who settled in the UK after the Second World War, and her mother was an educator assigned to teach the soldiers English. Olga attended James Gillespie's High School (the same school that Muriel Spark immortalized in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ), where she fell in love with Russian literature; the first Miss Blaine novel was inspired in roughly equal parts by Muriel Spark and Leo Tolstoy.After graduating from the University of Aberdeen, Olga became a journalist, eventually working in England, France, and Washington, DC, as well as in Scotland. She has published more than thirty short stories in literary magazines and anthologies, and the Miss Blaine series represents her first novel-length project. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband, Alistair. If you are lucky enough to meet her, ask her to tell you about Wojtek the bear.