"...Becker has crafted a riveting and unpredictable crime drama that also works as an affecting love story...An entertaining blend of American history and fictional drama." Kirkus Reviews
"...[A] solid and amusing mystery with many scattered allusions to 18th-century authors and books, all delivered with sharp prose in short, smoothly flowing chapters. Those seeking entertainment in fiction with an American Revolution bent will not be disappointed." Historical Novel Review
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
In Mally Becker’s brilliant sequel to The Turncoat’s Widow, the fight for independence is both political and personal. When George Washington calls upon Becca Parcell and Daniel Alloway to fight the spread of counterfeit money, the unlikely pair uncovers a web of lies and long-buried secrets that reverberate from the battlefield to the bedroom. This historical mystery is vividly realized in its precise details, complex characters, and dynamic plot. The Counterfeit Wife is a not-to-be-missed adventure that gives new meaning to rebel and loyalist, spy and spouse. ~ Lori Robbins, award-winning author of the On Pointe and Masterclass Mystery series
The Counterfeit Wife by Mally Becker has it all — adventure, romance and deceit. The second book in the Revolutionary War Mysteries will sweep you up in the twists and turns of a suspenseful story about traitors, murderers and counterfeiters. Follow Becca and Daniel from Philadelphia’s high society to its back alleys and docks where we learn that there is more than one kind of counterfeiter at the heart of this story. Becker gives us a complex heroine in Rebecca Parcell. Conflicted about her attraction to Daniel, her partner in espionage, she comes into her own as a budding feminist. With smooth-as-ice prose and pitch-perfect dialogue, Becker has done it again. History and mystery lovers won’t want to miss the latest installment of the Revolutionary War Mysteries. ~Tina deBellegarde, Agatha and Derringer-nominated author of the Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery Series
Well researched from the buried past, familiar Philadelphia locations come to life as Becker weaves historical details into the lives of well-developed characters. Rich in descriptive language, Mally Becker introduces the reader to the lives of wealthy, their servants and the enslaved. The reader will traverse the docks and streets of the past yet recognize those of today: Market Street, City Tavern, Ben Franklin’s Post Office, and A Man Full of Troubles (Sorrows) Tavern.
Plot twists and turns lead us deeper into the truth as clues are deftly left for the reader. As the young country struggles for independence, so does Becca, and she will have you turning pages well into the night. Like today’s world, a woman’s independence and strength is bolstered by the support of other women and Becca leans into Lady Washington, Sally Franklin Bache and a mysterious healer as Becca and Daniel lie to everyone but never to each other.
I highly recommended The Counterfeit Wife and I’m already anxious for the third of the series. ~ Eileen Harrison Sanchez, award-winning author of Freedom Lessons—A Novel