Linni de Witt is supposed to be retired. She’s definitely earned it, since she worked for the British government during the first and second world wars. And she would be quietly living in her grace-and-favor house in the countryside if people from London hadn’t bothered her new friends, Jim and Rosie Mackie. In The White Lady, Jacqueline Winspear’s protagonist shakes off the (very faint) dust of inactivity to protect the Mackies from the clutches of his criminal family. Alongside this caper, Winspear takes us to Linni’s war years, slowly revealing what drives her strongly protective instincts.
Because Linni’s service goes back decades, to when she was working for La Dame Blanche, she has a lot of very useful connections. One of them is a detective inspector, Steven Warren, who polices London’s gangs and crime syndicates. Renewing the acquaintance gives Linni a spot on an ad hoc team to check into why the Mackies would want to bring Jim back into the fold. Linni suspects that the family is planning a big job that needs Jim’s skills. Steven’s casual sexism and frequent dismissals of Linni’s ideas, however, really got my back up. Linni knows how to roll with this; she’s been dealing with men who think they know better her whole life. Me, on the other hand, I wanted to kick Steven in the shins more than once.
I found the parts of the book that covered Linni’s past much more interesting. (Part of this might be because those years are, for the most part, Steven-free.) Linni is a fierce but reluctant secret agent. During World War I, when she was barely into her teen years and still living in rural Belgium, she and her sister were recruited into La Dame Blanche. They were mostly sent to gather information, because their age and gender meant they were rarely noticed. Things get more dangerous when Linni and her sister are assigned to derail German trains. After a successful mission blows her cover, Linni, her sister, and her mother are whisked away to England. Linni is recalled to service in the Second World War because her language skills and training are too valuable for her to stay on the sidelines.
The character development in the chapters about Linni’s war experiences was marvelous. I’ve never seen a resistance agent quite like her. She’s very good at the work but she would rather be anywhere other than the fighting. During both wars, she feels responsible for everyone on her team—too responsible. If things go wrong, Linni blames herself. She worries at herself with thoughts that she failed to protect the people around her. Linni is fearsomely capable, yet can’t let go of things that are out of her control.
The White Lady reads like two shorter books spliced together. I was interested enough in the chapters set in 1948 that I didn’t mind all that much being dragged away from the chapters set during the wars. I suspect other readers will be annoyed. I’m less forgiving of the disappointing ending. After so much action and drama, I found the conclusion of The White Lady to be a complete fizzle. I would only recommend this book with caution to readers looking for historical fiction with unique characters.