I have loved many of Kate Atkinson’s books (esp the Jackson Brodie series), and was happy to receive a copy of Transcription from Little, Brown & Co. and NetGalley In return for my honest review.

Possibly I am just burned out on historical fiction set in and around WWII featuring a plucky heroine, but…this didn’t do it for me (and my expectations were high, because…well, it is Kate Freaking Atkinson!)

The story begins in 1940, when Juliet Armstrong (plucky 18-year old) is recruited into a little-known department of MI5. She is assigned to monitor Nazi sympathizers, and despite the tedium of transcribing conversations verbatim, she is rather pleased to be gradually pulled into the world of “real” espionage. Once the war is over, she assumes those days are past, and she goes on to develop her own career in radio, working for BBC.  There is a new war going on, featuring changes of enemies (suddenly the formerly allied Soviet Union is an enemy, etc.) and she gets dragged into an ongoing saga. Various recurring characters, blah blah blah

Extremely well written, as I expect from Ms. Atkinson, with well-develop characters and fascinating facts about espionage. So what’s my problem? Maybe I am just exhausted by politics, lies, and creepy men in power, but it really just didn’t do it for me. So it’s only 3 stars (I am a notoriously easy grader), and I still love Atkinson’s writing, but I am sorry to say I was not enthralled with this one as I had hoped – perhaps overly high expectations? Anyway, 3 ***