Desperate men are the most dangerous men of all.

Oxford University, November 1950. In Kate Westbury’s The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies, two students clash over a library carrel, an experience unpleasant enough that neither is likely to want to repeat the encounter. Especially when the encounter is over a dead man. But there we are.

First-year Ginerva Bishop, 22, comes from a privileged family and her life would seem golden, except that her mother is dead, her father in indebted, and, to save the family, she’s being pushed to marry a Duke’s son, a prospect she abhors.

Second-year Sidney Braithwaite, 26, is a miner’s son, whose two years of intelligence work in France during the war, and the death there of the woman he loved, still gives him nightmares.

One is curious, impulsive, and intuitive; the other is cautious and scarred, but what brings them together is the heart attack that laid out a man who intersected both their lives, a school librarian named Tolliver, who turns out to have an intelligence agent investigating reports of a Soviet spy. And it wasn’t a heart attack. It was cyanide.

Sidney has the experience and knowledge. Ginerva possesses the knack of charming people and, to Sidney’s surprise, some unexpected skills, such as lock-picking. The result is that they get along like…well, they don’t:

Sidney: “You’ve got to come at this slowly. Move too fast, and you’ll show your hand.”

Ginerva: “Move too slowly, and you’ll never have a hand worth playing.”

But they are yoked together by circumstance, so move they must, even though neither of them have any real idea of what they’re up against. A lot of people around them have secrets to hide, and will do anything to escape exposure. Treachery, retribution, murder – they’re all on the table. And so is the unlikeliest outcome of all: love.

Bright, twisty, effervescent, filled with genuine suspense and irresistible characters, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is a book true to its title – and will leave you wanting more.

“When I started writing historical mysteries,” Westbury says, “I dug into postwar England because it interested me and felt like a less crowded market, but the specific elements that came together for the book – academia, espionage, Golden Age mysteries – have always captured my imagination. I love how pieces of my favorite things came together for this story, and I’m so glad it became my debut.

“It started, however, as a straightforward Oxford mystery until my very wise agent pushed me to find another angle to make it stand out. I already had Agatha Christie’s sleuthing duo Tommy and Tuppence on my vision board as inspiration for Ginevra and Sidney’s dynamic, and the espionage element of those stories made me consider how Cold War spies could make for an interesting twist for the mystery side of mine. When I realized John le Carre was an MI5 agent while an Oxford undergraduate, that became the eureka moment that fused everything together.

“Oxford Guide also started with only Ginerva’s POV, but Sidney’s voice was so strong I couldn’t ignore him for very long. He became the emotional engine of this book for me personally, but I love hearing whom readers connect with more.”

Westbury faced some challenges, though: “My imposter syndrome almost kept me from ever starting Oxford Guide. I am neither British nor have I ever visited England: Why would I think I can write this book? My heart’s persuasive counterargument was that I had been an enthusiast of British books, TV, and movies my entire life, and that had to count for something in the imagination department. Why not at least try?”

To read more of Neil’s review and discussion with Kate Westbury, go here.