Speakeasy
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: March 14, 2017 3:09 PM | Last Updated: July 10, 2017
Alisa Smith
A former undetected outlaw who ran with Bill Bagley's notorious gang during the Depression, Lena Stillman is now an elite codebreaker in a position to know the nation's strategic secrets. Good under pressure, good at keeping her mouth shut, Lena never had trouble keeping her double lives compartmentalized — at least not until Bill is sentenced to hang and her old Clockwork Gang becomes newsworthy.
Despite mounting fear that her secrets might be revealed, Lena excels at work and her skills attract new, unwanted attention. She is assigned to root out a spy at the Esquimalt base and even her friends become suspects. (From Douglas & McIntyre)
From the book
Even after six months, I still had to locate the bunker by first spotting the nearby radio tower. Otherwise you couldn't see until you were nearly on top of it: the back walls were built into a cliff facing the sea so that it was almost flush with the horizon. The bunker reminded me of a Greek amphitheatre, white concentric circles nestled in a grassy depression, but instead of opening to the sun each level was enclosed, secretive and seeking no audience but the participants themselves.
From Speakeasy by Alisa Smith ©2017. Published by Douglas & McIntyre.