Skip to main content

The Counterfeit Wife (Revolutionary War Mystery #2) by Mally Becker: A Book Review

The Counterfeit Wife (Revolutionary War Mystery #2)
Author: Mally Becker
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense
Publisher: Level Best Books
Release Date: 2022
Pages: 313
Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Philadelphia, June 1780. George Washington’s two least likely spies return, masquerading as husband and wife as they search for traitors in Philadelphia.


     Months have passed since young widow Becca Parcell and former printer Daniel Alloway foiled a plot that threatened the new nation. But independence is still a distant dream, and General Washington can’t afford more unrest, not with food prices rising daily and the value of money falling just as fast.


     At the General’s request, Becca and Daniel travel to Philadelphia to track down traitors who are flooding the city with counterfeit money. Searching for clues, Becca befriends the wealthiest women in town, the members of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia, while Daniel seeks information from the city’s printers.


     But their straightforward mission quickly grows personal and deadly as a half-remembered woman from Becca’s childhood is arrested for murdering one of the suspected counterfeiters.


     With time running out—and their faux marriage breaking apart—Becca and Daniel find themselves searching for a hate-driven villain who’s ready to kill again.


     My Review: The Counterfeit Wife is the sequel to The Turncoat’s Widow. Becca and Daniel are sent by General George Washington to look for counterfeiters in Philadelphia. When one counterfeiter is murdered, Becca’s long-lost mother is blamed for the murder. Could Becca save her mother and find the real killer?


     This novel gives more insight into Becca’s background. We learn more of her relationship with her mother. We also learn that Becca has trust issues and is very insecure. She is not as confident as she pretends to be. This often leads her into conflict with Daniel. Throughout the course of the novel, Becca must learn to overcome her fears if she wants to pursue her own happiness. I also loved Becca’s sleuthing skills. She is very observant and strongly daring. 


    Daniel is an excellent sleuthing partner. However, he is pretty reckless and often gets himself into dangerous situations. Still, he is very supportive of Becca and admires her intelligence. I love the blossoming romance between Becca and Daniel. It was a very compelling will-they-or-won’t-they romance. I wanted to see if they ended up together by the end of the novel.


     Overall, this novel is about motherhood, counterfeiting, and slavery. I found all the characters to be very intriguing. I also loved how the mystery was set during the Revolutionary War. This setting was very refreshing after reading many historical mysteries set in the Victorian era! The only things I did not like about this book was that it had a slow beginning and a predictable mystery. Nevertheless, there was a lot of intrigue, action, and romance that will keep you invested in the story! I hope that there will be more installments in the Revolutionary War Mystery series because I would like to know more about what happens to Becca and Daniel! I recommend this for fans of Victoria Hamilton, Julie Bates, and Jane Steen!


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Enheduana: Princess, Priestess, Poetess (Routledge Ancient Biographies) by Alhena Gadotti: A Book Review

Enheduana: Princess, Priestess, Poetess (Routledge Ancient Biographies) Author: Alhena Gadotti Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: Routledge Publication Date: May 2, 2025 Pages: 132 Source: Personal Collection  Synopsis: Enheduana: Princess, Priestess, Poetess offers the first comprehensive biography of Enheduana, daughter of Sargon of Agade and one of the most intriguing, yet elusive, women from antiquity.      Royal princess, priestess, and alleged author, Enheduana deserves as much attention as her martial relatives. A crucial contributor to her father’s military ambitions, Enheduana nonetheless wielded religious and economic power, as evidenced by primary and secondary sources. Even more interestingly, Enheduana remained alive in the cultural memory of those who came after her, so much so that works attributed to her were integrated into the scribal curriculum centuries after her death. This book aims to situate Enheduana in her own histor...

Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World's First Author by Sophus Helle: A Book Review

Enheduana: The Complete Poems of the World’s First Author Author: Sophus Helle Genre: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Religion Publisher: Yale University Press Release Date: 2024 Pages: 228 Source: Personal Collection  Synopsis: The complete poems of the priestess Enheduana, the world’s first known author, newly translated from the original Sumerian.      Enheduana was a high priestess and royal princess who lived in Ur, in what is now southern Iraq, about 2300 BCE. Not only does Enheduana have the distinction of being the first author whose name we know, but the poems attributed to her are hymns of great power. They are a rare flash of the female voice in the often male-dominated ancient world, treating themes that are as relevant today as they were four thousand years ago: exile, social disruption, the power of storytelling, gender-bending identities, the devastation of war, and the terrifying forces of nature.       This book is ...

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) by Lucinda Riley: A Book Review

The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters #1) Author: Lucinda Riley Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance Publisher: Atria Release Date: 2015 Pages: 463 Source: My State Public Library Synopsis: Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings. Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to ...