Transcription, Atkinson - C

                                              This book is one that was on just about every best-of list for last year. The author is popular, esteemed and a superb writer. The rather poor grade given here is a function of a last minute turn of events that I cannot fit into the story. Perhaps, it is me who deserves the poor grade for my inability to handle modern British literature.  Soon after her mother's death in 1940, eighteen-year-old Juliet goes to work for MI-5 in London. Her job is to transcribe the interviews that Mr. Toby conducts with unaware fifth columnists who believe they are meeting with a Gestapo agent. But this apparently simple task soon  becomes more complicated. First, she is asked to act as a spy on some local Nazis, which she does enthusiastically out of a sense of duty, and boredom. She creates an alternative cover and spends time with British fascists. She is also asked to keep an eye on Mr. Toby by someone higher up. She never reports she saw him leave a few dead drops for a rather mysterious looking stranger. The author is famous for novels that move back and forth in time, and before we leave 1940, Juliet participates in the arrest of an American diplomat and a local fascist. We next find her in 1950 working at the BBC when she receives an anonymous threat and notices that she is being followed. It's never quite clear who is following, but it is at this point that she is unmasked as a traitor and escapes the country before the security services can bring her in. If anyone can tell me what I missed, I'd be grateful.