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ELENA STANDISH

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Full Name: Elena Standish
Nationality: British
Organization: MI6
Occupation Agent

Creator: Anne Perry
Time Span: 2019 - 2023

ABOUT THE SERIES

Elena Standish is an agent of MI6.

The year we first start following her adventures in 1933. Elena is not an operative at first but she will be pulled into the clandestine work of spy-hunting largely because of her current occupation which is that of photographer. Her love of the profession is intense and she finds considerable pleasure in capturing a moment in time.

28-year-old Standish "had started out after university in a high position in the Foreign Office, due not only to her excellent academic record, but in large part to her father's position over the years as British ambassador in several of the most important cities in Europe: Berlin, Paris, and Madrid in particular." Then a relationship with a man named Aiden had changed all that when he "betrayed them all and she had been stupid enough to help him, albeit unwittingly". She was asked to leave her position. Luckily she had her skill with a camera to fall back on.

Standish, the daughter of a British diplomat father and an American heiress mother, is described as being tall and lean and elegant with "a certain grace", good looking but not exactly beautiful with blue eyes she thinks of as ordinary and hair that was nearly but not quite blonde. She is single and always has been, considering herself one of the 'surplus' women in Britain, meaning "surplus to requirements because there were no men (after the War) for them to marry".

Standish will get involved in the espionage world when taking a spur-of-the-moment train trip back to England if only to spend just a little more time with an interesting man she had met while on a photo-assignment in Italy. She would only later find that her heritage had its own history in the clandestine world, including a paternal grandfather who had once, "unbeknownst to his family", been the head of MI6.

Once she is drawn in, though, she finds that she has entered a profession that is every bit as interesting and captivating as her photography. She also learns that taking a photo does not normally put your life in peril while spying for England against Germany's Gestapo always does.

BOOKS

Number of Books:5
First Appearance:2019
Last Appearance:2023

1 Death in Focus Death in Focus
Written by Anne Perry
Copyright: 2019

Vacationing on the Italian coast with her sister Margo,, Elena Standish meets a handsome man named Ian. Taking a train trip back to England with him, Elena finds herself asked to deliver a message to Berlin on his behalf. Back in England her father and grandfather, the latter a former head of MI6, are involved in their own set of intrigues which will pull Elena into it.
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2 A Question of Betrayal A Question of Betrayal
Written by Anne Perry
Copyright: 2020

"Britain’s secret intelligence service, MI6, has lost contact with its informant in northern Italy, just as important information about the future plans of Austria and Nazi Germany is coming to light. And young Elena Standish, to her surprise, is the only person who can recognize MI6’s man—because he is her former lover. Aiden Strother betrayed Elana six years ago, throwing shame on her entire family. Now, with so much to prove, Elena heads to Trieste to track down Aiden and find out what happened to his handler, who has mysteriously cut off contact with Britain."
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3 A Darker Reality A Darker Reality
Written by Anne Perry
Copyright: 2021

"On her first trip to Washington, D.C., Elena Standish finally gets to visit her American mother’s wealthy parents and their magnificent home. Elena’s grandparents are marking a milestone anniversary by throwing an elaborate party with the influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent political industrialist. Even President and First Lady Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt are there, and Elena takes pride in capturing the illustrious guests on camera. But the festivities come to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Elena believes Lila was trying to tell her something before her death, and when a call from her employer back home, MI6, confirms that Lila was a British spy, Elena pairs with a fellow agent to find out what vital information the young woman had in her possession."
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4 A Truth To Lie For A Truth To Lie For
Written by Anne Perry
Copyright: 2022

"It is the summer of 1934, and Hitler is nearing the summit of supreme power in Germany. When Britain’s MI6 gets word that a German scientist has made a key breakthrough in germ warfare, they send Elena Standish on a dangerous mission to get him out of Germany before he’s forced to share his knowledge and its destructive power with Hitler’s elite.
But the British soon learn that the new head of Germany’s germ warfare division is an old enemy of Elena's grandfather Lucas, the former head of MI6. And he’s bent on using any means to avenge his defeat at Lucas’s hands twenty years before."
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5 The Traitor Among Us The Traitor Among Us
Written by Anne Perry
Copyright: 2023

"Not far from the sprawling grounds of Wyndham Hall, the body of longtime MI6 agent John Repton is found, shot dead with a single bullet to the heart. The corpse’s proximity to the estate sends ripples of concern through the intelligence community: Repton was killed while surveilling the members of a household with alleged ties to fascists who threaten the security of the country, as Hitler’s influence spreads across Europe. Elena Standish is assigned the case, thanks to her new connection to the Wyndham family: Her older sister, Margot, is being courted by Lady Wyndham’s brother."
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MY COMMENTS

The late Anne Perry, author of these terrific adventures of Elena Standish, was "noted for her memorable characters, historical accuracy and exploration of social and ethical issues", as Fantastic Fiction so correctly phrased it. Back in the Eighties I spent many hours in the 19th Century English world of Inspector Pitt and his always entertaining and inquisitive wife Charlotte. I only read one or two of her other major character, the Victorian-era detective William Monk but I enjoyed them.

Late in her life, she moved her period writing up a few decades to be during or shortly after the First World War but her devotion to detail and accuracy remained solidly intact. When you read these books about Standish taking place a decade and a half after that War and less than a decade before the start of the Second, you truly find yourself in the period.

Throw in the fact that Standish is a very interesting character and you have a winner of an historical spy series.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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