Original Sin

May 23, 2011
Retired spy Lucy Hamilton, currently a San Francisco stay-at-home mom, proves herself to be "a fabulous multitasker," capable of both playing cowboys with her three-year-old son and tangling with international terrorists, in McMullen's diverting debut. When Simon Still, her former boss at the United States Agency for Weapons of Mass Destruction, calls Lucy back to active duty, Lucy is trying hard to forget a career that her husband knows nothing about and succeedingâexcept when she slips up and accidentally decks her yoga instructor or Simon's assignment stirs long-buried memories. That's when overlong passages of backstory put the brakes on the tenuous momentum of a plot about the return of Lucy's old nemesis, Ian Blackford, long thought to be dead. Blackford's sudden reappearance offers Simon a perfect opportunity to use Lucy (formerly known as Sally Sin) as bait. What no one anticipates is the fury of a mother's protective instinct in this promising light thriller.

May 1, 2011

In McMullen's debut, a former spy tries to forget her past and lead a "normal" life as a Bay Area wife and mother—if only her past would forget her.

Right out of college, Lucy Parks was recruited by the USAWMD, a covert agency dedicated to tracking purveyors of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Code-named Sally Sin, she soon found herself dodging death all over the globe, from Afghanistan to Saigon, Budapest to Madrid, Cambodia to Cape Town. Her handler, Simon Still, trusts her to bring down the depraved nuclear arms smuggler known as the Blind Monk, who wreaks mayhem while swathed in saffron. However, Ian Blackford, a former USAWMD asset who turned traitor and now traffics WMDs himself, has a nasty habit of turning up whereever Sally is and kidnapping her. The narrative ricochets back and forth between Sally's past adventures and her present life as mother of three-year-old charmer Theo and wife of Will Hamilton, an environmental consultant whose biggest concern for his family is their carbon footprint. Sally has kept her employment history secret from Will, which was not a problem until recently: the fine print in her retirement contract requires Sally to remain on call for espionage. She is tapped by Simon to see what reclusive college professor Albert Malcolm is really up to in his lab, which may entail allowing Blackford, who is also sniffing around Prof. Malcolm, to abduct her again. After gaining entry to the lab, she photographs some documents, but there is no sign of Blackford. However, as much as she fears encountering him again, she has to admit that he does bear a passing resemblance to James Bond, in both the Connery and Brosnan incarnations. And the excuses she's giving to Will for her increasingly frequent absences (while a rookie USAWMD agent babysits Theo) are wearing thin.

Sally's slapdash, offhand delivery is fun even though the exposition is laborious and the payoff too long delayed—perhaps anticipating the second planned Sally Sin Adventure.

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May 1, 2011

McMullen's debut introduces Lucy Hamilton, stay-at-home mom by day, spy by night. After giving up a stellar career as a government agent (code name: Sally Sin), Lucy finds herself drawn back into the underworld when her old nemesis, an arms dealer, resurfaces--and she's apparently the only one who can bring him to justice. High-spirited fun that will appeal to readers who enjoy sassy mystery heroines. [Library marketing; BEA and ALA promotion and advance reading edition giveaways.]

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2011
After nine years of covert work for the U.S. Agency for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Agent 26, familiarly known as Sally Sin, fell in love and opted for normalcy instead of life as a spy. Now she's Lucy Parks (not her real name) Hamilton, happily married to William Wilton Hamilton III, investment banker turned green energy developer, and the mother of three-year-old Theo. But she can't escape her past, and her first-person narration includes backstory, near-death experiences in exotic Far Eastern locales, and her current crisis. Asked by former boss Simon Still to serve as bait for dangerous turncoat Ian Blackford, a skilled former USAWMD operative who's irresistibly drawn to Sally Sin. Ever vigilant for her son's safety, Lucy juggles keeping her past buried (only Sam, grandfather of one of Theo's playground pals and an ex-CIA agent, even suspects) while managing to thwart the attractive Blackford, handle his deadly compatriot the Blind Monk, and avoid being killed in the process. McMullen's breezy style conveys both humor and emotion and is perfectly suited to her stylized spy adventure. An exuberantly entertaining start to what could become a wildly popular series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)