Construction on Parliament's clock tower is twenty-five years behind schedule and set to be delayed even further when a body is found in the work yard at the base of the clocktower. Mary Quinn makes a reappearance in her first case as a real agent.
Mary disguises herself as a boy to get a job on the construction site. She must battle the memory of childhood hunger, poverty, and the danger of an unprotected young woman in the streets of Victorian London to be successful in her mission.
Shuttled from job to job, Mary's supposed age and inexperience makes her fit for little more than errand-boy or work in the site office. She becomes an outsider and has difficulty working the case until a character from her past comes back.
James Easton went to India as head engineer ending a burgeoning relationship. With James's return Mary is again thrown into emotional turmoil whether or not to accept the friendship he offers.
With James's help, Mary is able to link the threads of the murderer and bring an answer back to the Agency. Mary nearly loses herself undercover on the construction site, but her friendships and the will to move ahead ground her. The tension between James and Mary is different between the first and second installments of The Agency series adding a new layer to the suspense.
The Agency is a new type of investigative service; readers of all ages can enjoy the logical progression of Mary's investigation and the suspense of finding a murderer. Written at a late elementary level The Body at the Tower is a new kind of young adult mystery.
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