Electra McDonnell Books in Order
Part ofAshley Weaver Books in OrderFollow the Electra McDonnell series by Ashley Weaver in order, with WWII spy-mystery summaries, series background and quick advice on the best place to start.
Last updated: December 23, 2025
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Publication Order
5 books
One Final Turn
by Ashley Weaver
2025
In the final Electra McDonnell adventure, Ellie travels to Lisbon after learning her cousin Toby has escaped a German POW camp. Working under a new handler while still haunted by Major Ramsey and her parents' secrets, she must rescue Toby and protect vulnerable escapees from Nazi pursuit.
Locked in Pursuit
by Ashley Weaver
2024
Ellie spots a suspicious burglary in the paper and realizes it echoes an earlier mission, leading her and Major Ramsey into a trail of thefts tied to a map of a vital tungsten mine. To stay ahead of Nazi agents, she teams up with charming forger Felix and chases leads toward neutral Lisbon.
Playing It Safe
by Ashley Weaver
2023
Assigned to travel under an alias to the port city of Sunderland, Ellie expects a straightforward job, until a man collapses dead in front of her with a cryptic note in his hand. Soon she and Major Ramsey are racing to stop a Nazi counterfeiting scheme before it turns deadly.
The Key to Deceit
by Ashley Weaver
2022
Now officially helping the war effort, Ellie is called to remove a locked bracelet from a young woman's body pulled from the Thames. The strange cuff and a cameo locket send her and Major Ramsey into a dangerous hunt for spies operating in blackout London.
A Peculiar Combination
by Ashley Weaver
2021
In blitz-era London, safecracker Ellie McDonnell is caught during a burglary and given a choice, prison or working for British intelligence. Paired with stern Major Ramsey, she must break into a traitor's safe, untangle a spy's death and learn whom she can trust.
Series background & context
The Electra McDonnell novels shift to World War II, following Electra, or Ellie, a gifted safecracker raised by a family of thieves in London as the Blitz rages overhead.
In the first book, A Peculiar Combination, Ellie and her uncle are caught breaking into a wealthy home and given a choice that is not really a choice at all. Either she goes to prison, or she uses her lock-picking skills for British intelligence under the watch of Major Gabriel Ramsey.
Each mission drops her into a slightly different corner of the war. The Key to Deceit begins with the body of a young woman found in the Thames, a locked bracelet on her wrist hinting at espionage. Playing It Safe sends Ellie under an assumed name to Sunderland, where a sudden death in the street and a strange note lead her toward a Nazi counterfeiting scheme. In Locked in Pursuit, a string of jewel robberies ties back to a missing map and a Nazi hunt for a critical tungsten mine, pulling Ellie between bombed London and neutral Lisbon. One Final Turn takes her to Lisbon again on a far more personal errand, trying to rescue her cousin Toby and a group of escaped POWs while confronting the truth about her parents.
Even with all the spy craft, the books keep their focus on people. Ellie is resourceful and funny but also shaped by guilt over her criminal past, while Ramsey is precise, rule bound and quietly protective, and Felix Lacey, the suave forger who drifts in and out of their cases, adds both skills and romantic tension.
Together they pull off break-ins, decode messages, bluff their way into dangerous rooms and walk out again with the evidence they need, all against a backdrop of sirens, blackouts and ration queues. The series leans into heist energy and undercover glamour without losing sight of the grief and uncertainty that hang over wartime London.
Because Ellie's family history and relationships develop from book to book, especially the mystery surrounding her parents and her feelings for Ramsey and Felix, it pays to start with A Peculiar Combination and read in order, though each novel still delivers a complete case and resolution.
If you like lock-pick scenes, undercover parties and characters who are still figuring themselves out in the middle of a war, these books offer a lively blend of caper, spy story and classic mystery.
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