The traitor in the tunnel by YS Lee

Rating : 5 / 5
Goodreads : Queen Victoria has a little problem: there's a petty thief at work in Buckingham Palace. Charged with discretion, the Agency puts quickwitted Mary Quinn on the case, where she must pose as a domestic while fending off the attentions of a feckless Prince of Wales. But when the prince witnesses the murder of one of his friends in an opium den, the potential for scandal looms large. And Mary faces an even more unsettling possibility: the accused killer, a Chinese sailor imprisoned in the Tower of London, shares a name with her long-lost father. Meanwhile, engineer James Easton, Mary's onetime paramour, is at work shoring up the sewers beneath the palace, where an unexpected tunnel seems to be very much in use. Can Mary and James trust each other (and put their simmering feelings aside) long enough to solve the mystery and protect the Royal Family? Hoist on your waders for Mary's most personal case yet, where the stakes couldn't be higher - and she has everything to lose.

My review :
I think I can say it now : i'm in love with The Agency series and it might be one of my favorite series ! This third book was even more better than the two first books !!!! I couldn't put it down and I read it in one sitting.
Once again I was so happy to be back in this world of spies, this victorian era, london...
This time this is completely different. At the beginning of the book Mary is already in a mission so we're right from the beginning into the action. And this is quite extraordinary there is so much things happening in the first few chapters it's unbelievable. So much tensions, mysteries, discoveries. YS Lee really surprised me again !
This time her investigation is at Buckingham Palace Mary is a servant there for the royal family Queen Victoria and her family. How awesome is that? It was interesting to see and discover the life of a servant at the palace at that time.
What I always found fascinating in these books is that there isn't one plot but several plots ! Several intrigues so there isn't any pause or boring moment in the narration :
We have objects mysteriously disappearing in the palace, Mary's roomate who is dating Mr Jones (a character we met in the second book), Mary is also learning more about her Chinese origins and James Easton is working in the sewers of the palace.
This book was really suspenceful and kept me on the edge of my seat (or actually my bed ^^).
And then there is the characters and especially Mary and James Easton. I'm always proud of Mary. I really feel connected to her she is so brave and clever. Yes i'm proud that my name is Mary too (even it's written the french way : Marie). And our male character : James. Mary is probably one of my favorite character from a book that I read in 2012 and Jame one of my favorite love interest. I was so happy to see him again. But again this third book was different than the others. We don't really see James that often compared to the two first books. We actually see him just 4 times I think. And I was also surprised because we don't have anything from his point of view except a little chapter toward the end. I was a little disappointed at first because I liked that we had their two point of view in the two previous books but when I was reading the book I wasn't thinking about it and it didn't disturb me too much because there was so much things happening. And even if we see James just a few times in this one these passages are absolutely awesome ! I'm sure i'm going to reread them soon ! I love the two of them they're perfect together. YS Lee succeeds in conveying their attraction and passion.
Now about the end. I don't want to give any spoilers but this end is going to change everything and I can't wait to read the next book to see how it's going to be developped.
And to conclude I just want to say that I don't understand why this series is not more popular because it totally deserves it. I don't hear many people talking about it but you should totally read this series guys you won't regret it !