I have never listened to an Audible Original before, but when looking for audiobooks included in my subscription I discovered Agent 355 written by Marie Benedict, a favorite biographical/historical author, and decided to give it a try. This audiobook focuses on the mysterious Agent 355, a still unknown woman who was part of Washington’s spy ring during the Revolutionary War. A quick Google search showed that Benedict chose one of the theories surrounding this woman and ran with it. It’s part history, part romance, and a riveting listen. At just over 2 hours its novella length was perfect when I needed a quick and easy book. It includes historic figures and true facts and events in New York City around the time of Benedict Arnold’s discovery as a traitor. I enjoyed it very much. The historical details gave the book authenticity and the romance was bittersweet. I loved that the author explored an otherwise unknown piece of American history involving a heroic woman. Although there is no way of knowing if the suppositions in Benedict’s novella were true, I appreciated her dedication to make the era come alive to a modern reader/listener.
Recommended.
Audience: adults.
(Agent 355 was included with my Audible subscription. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
From Marie Benedict, New York Times best-selling author of The Only Woman in the Room, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and co-author of The Personal Librarian, comes a captivating work of historical fiction about a young female spy who may have changed the course of American history.
The tide is turning against the colonists in the Revolutionary War, and 18-year-old Elizabeth Morris cannot sit by idly. Quietly disdainful of her Tory parents, who drag her along to society events and welcome a British soldier into their home during their occupation of New York City, Elizabeth decides to take matters into her own hands. She realizes that, as a young woman, no one around her believes that she can comprehend the profound implications of being a nation at war – she is, effectively, invisible. And she can use this invisibility to her advantage. Her unique access to British society leads her to a role with General George Washington’s own network of spies: the Culper Ring.
Based on true events, Agent 355 combines adventure, romance, and espionage to bring to life this little-known story of a hero who risked her life to fight for freedom against all odds.
Marie Benedict is a lawyer with more than ten years’ experience as a commercial litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms. While practicing as a NYC lawyer, Marie dreamed of a fantastical job unearthing the hidden historical stories of women — and finally found it when she tried her hand at writing. She embarked on a new, thematically connected series of historical fiction excavating the stories of important, complex and fascinating women from the past with THE OTHER EINSTEIN, which tells the tale of Albert Einstein’s first wife, a physicist herself. She then released CARNEGIE’S MAID, the story of a brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie toward philanthropy, followed by the B&N Book Club pick and NYTimes bestseller THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM, the tale of the Golden Age of Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr who made a world-changing invention, and LADY CLEMENTINE about Winston Churchill’s wife. She then wrote the Costco pick and NYTimes bestseller THE MYSTERY OF MRS. CHRISTIE which focuses on the real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie and the role it played in shaping her into the world’s most successful novelist. In her first co-written novel with the talented Victoria Christopher Murray, Marie released the NYTimes bestselling and Good Morning America Book Club pick THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN about Belle da Costa Greene, the personal librarian to J.P, Morgan who hid a secret about her identity — and that was followed by HER HIDDEN GENIUS about the brilliant British scientist Rosalind Franklin who discovered the structure of DNA but her research was taken and used by James Watson and Francis Crick. Coming this January 2023 is THE MITFORD AFFAIR, an explosive novel of history’s most notorious sisters — the brilliant, aristocratic Mitfords –, one of whom will have to choose her country or her family as the sisters get caught in the crosshairs of WWII.
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