About the Author

Jennie Rooney was born in Liverpool in 1980. She studied history at the University of Cambridge and taught English in France before moving to London to work as an attorney. Her first novel, Inside the Whale, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.

Reviews

Praise for Red Joan "A brilliant spy novel, with a deft, involving plot... tense, beautifully pitched and very moving."
--Marie Claire "A page-turning saga of spies, conflicted loyalty, and the grave consequences of good intentions."
--Publishers Weekly "Rooney has created a wonderful narrative structure [that] elegantly presents a woman who was living a 'calm and contented existence' when MI5 came knocking on her door."
--Kirkus "Rooney wonderfully evokes not only the political consciousness of the time but also the exhilaration -- and the terror -- of being young and risking everything...A drama of love, idealism, and betrayal that is as moving as it is thrilling."
--Barnes & Noble Review "Rooney's re-creation of the politics of the day is brilliant."
--The Times "Red Joan's strength lies in the complex personal relationships that underpin the spying game... A powerfully written exploration of the far-reaching consequences that even the smallest-seeming actions can have."
--Literary Review "This is an infectious page-turner, as crafty and nuanced and impassioned as any classic thriller, but one that doesn't forget where its heart is."
--The National "A sensitive spy thriller, finely detailed and resolutley sensitive. This excellent period novel still carries some considerable resonance in the age of Bradley Manning."
--Metro "Rooney is a novelist at home with life's ambiguities, her plotting pleasingly intricate, her narrative richly textured."
--The Telegraph

Praise for Red Joan
-A brilliant spy novel, with a deft, involving plot... tense, beautifully pitched and very moving.-
--Marie Claire
-Rooney's re-creation of the politics of the day is brilliant.-
--The Times
-Red Joan's strength lies in the complex personal relationships that underpin the spying game... A powerfully written exploration of the far-reaching consequences that even the smallest-seeming actions can have.-
--Literary Review
-This is an infectious page-turner, as crafty and nuanced and impassioned as any classic thriller, but one that doesn't forget where its heart is.-
--The National
-A sensitive spy thriller, finely detailed and resolutley sensitive. This excellent period novel still carries some considerable resonance in the age of Bradley Manning.-
--Metro
-Rooney is a novelist at home with life's ambiguities, her plotting pleasingly intricate, her narrative richly textured.-
--The Telegraph

Praise for Red Joan
"A brilliant spy novel, with a deft, involving plot... tense, beautifully pitched and very moving."
--Marie Claire
"Rooney's re-creation of the politics of the day is brilliant."
--The Times
"Red Joan's strength lies in the complex personal relationships that underpin the spying game... A powerfully written exploration of the far-reaching consequences that even the smallest-seeming actions can have."
--Literary Review
"This is an infectious page-turner, as crafty and nuanced and impassioned as any classic thriller, but one that doesn't forget where its heart is."
--The National
"A sensitive spy thriller, finely detailed and resolutley sensitive. This excellent period novel still carries some considerable resonance in the age of Bradley Manning."
--Metro
"Rooney is a novelist at home with life's ambiguities, her plotting pleasingly intricate, her narrative richly textured."
--The Telegraph

"Rooney is a novelist at home with life's ambiguities, her plotting pleasingly intricate, her narrative richly textured. As the needle swings around her moral compass, her characters are contradictory, our sympathies for them similarly so. Even though I kept remembering the opening vignette, in which Joan is shown to be the sort of granny who steals geranium cuttings from her neighbour's garden, her realistic vulnerability won my affection."
--"Telegraph" (UK)

"An exciting and intelligent novel. . . . Rooney's re-creation of the politics of the day is brilliant."
--"The Times"

"Rooney has already shown herself to be a marvelous portrait artist of character in her previous two novels. . . . This is an infectious page-turner, as crafty and nuanced and impassioned as any classic thriller, but one that doesn't forget where its heart is . . . and is a case study in how to handle complex characters and motivations, keeping the reader on tenterhooks until the work's final moments."
--"The National"