Review: One Final Turn

It’s finally time for One Final Turn to be released in the world! Why do I say finally? Not just because it’s been almost a year since the last book in the Electra McDonnell series was released. No, it’s more to do with the fact that I read my egalley of Ashley Weaver’s book way back in October! I happened upon the series in 2024 and started reading the books in October. I quickly blew through all four books on audio and when I realized the last book was being released this year, I put in my request and it was granted! I gave myself the gift of reading all five books in the same month and it was a glorious gift. This series is so very good and incredibly enjoyable and I think all historical mystery fans need to read it.

Here’s the book’s description:

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.

Now, how to review the final book in a series when I haven’t reviewed any of the others! What I love about this series is each book centres on a different mystery or case that Ellie and Ramsey are working on. It’s kind of like a crime or medical TV show - each episode focuses on one thing as a standalone but a central storyline is woven through the season. It’s best to read from the beginning, of course, since you really get to know the characters. The key things that are present in all five books and aren’t resolved until the end are the relationship between Ellie and Ramsey and the mystery and secrecy surrounding Ellie’s parents’ past. (But you better believe I’m not spoiling that for you today!)

I’ve written a lot lately that I’m loving the historical mystery series I’ve been finding. Weaver’s series is probably one of my favourites. The characters she created are so three-dimensional and I really felt like I knew them. It was because of them that I wanted to keep reading…and reading and reading. And the mysteries she came up with! I very often did not see the end coming, which I always find delightful in a mystery.

I also really enjoyed the time period Weaver set this series in. When we first meet Ellie, it’s 1940. Her cousins, who are like brothers to her, are off fighting in the war. One is on an air base and is relatively safe. The other has been missing since Dunkirk. Right away, the reader is seeing how much of an impact war had on ordinary families. Not that Ellie’s family is ordinary - I liked that they were just a little bit outside the law. I haven’t read many war books from that perspective. I liked how Weaver showed what it was like on the home front for Londoners and showed all the various ways people were fighting the war at home.

Now, in One Final Turn, Ellie isn’t actually on the home front for part of the book. She’s sent on a case to Portugal. It wasn’t until some time in 2022 that I realized Portugal was considered neutral during WWII. That didn’t mean they weren’t important during the war. Far from it. As Weaver’s novel shows, the country was a hotbed for intelligence and full of refugees trying to flee the warzone. I found it super interesting to read about in Weaver’s book and I appreciated how she was able to share more history with the reader without hitting us over the head with facts.

I know I may not have talked much about One Final Turn specifically in this review, but I do hope I’ve convinced you to check out Ashley Weaver’s Electra McDonnell series. Start with A Peculiar Combination and prepare to fall in love with a whip smart safecracker and an emotionally guarded Major. I can’t wait to hear what you think about this series - or read more of Weaver’s novels in the future.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Minotaur Books, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*