On my Wish­list is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City where you get to chat about some of the books you des­per­ately want but haven’t actu­ally got round to buy­ing yet!

Here’s what’s on my wish­list this week:

The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S Lee

‘Steeped in Vic­to­rian atmos­phere and intrigue, this divert­ing mys­tery trails a feisty hero­ine as she takes on a pre­car­i­ous secret assignment.

Res­cued from the gal­lows in 1850s Lon­don, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is sur­prised to be offered a sin­gu­lar edu­ca­tion, instruc­tion in fine man­ners — and an unusual voca­tion. Miss Scrimshaw’s Acad­emy for Girls is a cover for an all-female inves­tiga­tive unit called The Agency, and at sev­en­teen, Mary is about to put her train­ing to the test. Assum­ing the guise of a lady’s com­pan­ion, she must infil­trate a rich merchant’s home in hopes of trac­ing his miss­ing cargo ships. But the house­hold is full of dan­ger­ous decep­tions, and there is no one to trust — or is there? Packed with action and sus­pense, ban­ter and romance, and evok­ing the gritty back­streets of Vic­to­rian Lon­don, this breezy mys­tery debuts a dar­ing young detec­tive who lives by her wits while uncov­er­ing secrets — includ­ing those of her own past.’

This book has been on my radar for a while, but sort of in the back­ground. I saw it in a book­shop the other day and was very tempted to buy it because I was so drawn to the cover. The whole look of the book and syn­op­sis very much reminds me of Philip Pullman’s Sally Lock­hart series, which I love.

A Vic­to­rian mys­tery and a strong female hero­ine who is a spy? Sounds like my kind of book. One genre I have be neglect­ing lately is his­tor­i­cal as I’ve mostly been read­ing either con­tem­po­rary YA or future dystopi­ans. I love a period set­ting and now I’ve read lots of great reviews about this, I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy to see if it is as good as I hope it is!