by Ashley Weaver
Release Date: June 3, 2025
2025 Minotaur Books
Ebook Edition; 304 Pages
ISBN: 978-1250350930
ASIN: B0D82XB6PF
Audiobook: B0DT7JX6LP
Genre: Fiction / Historical / Mystery
Source: Review copy from publisher
2.75 / 5 Stars
Summary
Ellie McDonnell is about to embark on her most
perilous mission go to Lisbon, Portugal to save her beloved cousin Toby
who has reportedly escaped from a German prisoner of war camp. Toby has
been missing since the Battle of Dunkirk and Ellie had all but lost hope
in ever seeing him again until Major Ramsey, the British military
intelligence officer she had been working closely with over the past few
months, shared the news he’d intercepted.
Nothing will stop Ellie from finding her cousin, not even the awkward experience of having to travel to an unknown country with Ramsey after he’d dismissed her for being untrustworthy just as she’d realized she had fallen in love with him. Under the supervision of Captain Archie Blandings, a charming intelligence officer based in Lisbon, Ellie meets with undercover operatives to track down where Toby might be hiding from the Nazis and whether they are too late to safely recover him, all the while fighting her feelings for Ramsey and the incessant burden of war looming around her at every turn.
Nothing will stop Ellie from finding her cousin, not even the awkward experience of having to travel to an unknown country with Ramsey after he’d dismissed her for being untrustworthy just as she’d realized she had fallen in love with him. Under the supervision of Captain Archie Blandings, a charming intelligence officer based in Lisbon, Ellie meets with undercover operatives to track down where Toby might be hiding from the Nazis and whether they are too late to safely recover him, all the while fighting her feelings for Ramsey and the incessant burden of war looming around her at every turn.
My Thoughts
One Final Turn is the final book in the Electra McDonnell mystery books and is one that I was really looking forward to reading. Unfortunately, it was the weakest book in the series for me, and aside from some really nice sight-seeing while they were in Lisbon, there was little to no mystery all wrapped up in the ongoing relationship issues she had with Ramsey.
So, let's start with Electra. I may be against consensus here, but I actually thought she was in the wrong with the way she behaved in the previous book and needed to take responsibility for her actions. I was hoping for a more mature Electra, one that would realize she put people in danger, one that would understand she was fired due to her own actions. But, no. I think the author wants us to feel sorry for Electra, to feel bad for how she was treated and I just can't do that. They are in the middle of a war and people's lives hang in the balance through choices made by others and it is hard to just let that go. Personally, I am pro-Ramsey all the way and would have just walked away as well. When they do get together in Lisbon, Electra acts all indignant and hurt around Ramsey, very rarely acknowledging her role in what happened. And even with all that happens next, she never really acknowledges her part in what happened.
The plot itself was rather weak, but then most of it seemed to revolved around Electra's issues with Ramsey anyways. I got tired of the repetitiveness and the sight-seeing and wanted to see some action. It was why they were there after all. But nope, it just kept going and going. And when something did happen, the plot holes were a mile wide. And don't even get me started on the whole relationship contrivance thing with regards to marriage and Archie and Ramsey. And in the end, when things finally started moving, it all was rather too pat, but I did get closure in the end even if it didn't get there smoothly or elegantly.
Verdict
One Final Turn was not my favourite book in the series as I had issues with the lack of character development as well as plot development. There were just too many coincidences used as plot devices for my liking, and I was really starting to dislike Electra as she was getting on my nerves with her immaturity. Overall, this book leans way too much into the romance which seriously affects the mystery and the tension. And while a lot of things wrap up nicely, it was due to contrivance and not good plot flow that it happened, something of which I am not a fan. And an aside, the big mystery to her past had only a brief mention, something in which I was disappointed as I was waiting four books to find out what happened.
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