That being said, the airline and airport details were a bit overdone and got a little tedious. (My absolute favorite: "Her Ladyboat" in reference to an aristocrat) I enjoyed the use of first person, and I'm a sucker for all the British humor and slang, and the vulgarisms didn't bother me a bit. Johnson's writing style is right up my alley: dry and humorous with lots of snappy dialogue and slightly dated pop culture references. The premise of SO17 was a bit weak - a small collection of motley, half-assed and underfunded spies was entertaining if not very believable.
I found the mystery to be engaging, and it was loads of fun to see Sophie learn to be a spy by the seat of her pants. Luca/Luke Sharpe is a capable alpha hero as a gorgeous undercover spy, and the romantic tension and chemistry between the two are wonderful. She's endearing, charming, flawed but lovable. I immediately fell in love with the heroine, Sophie Green, a harried British airport employee. And of course Sophie has the hots for various guys, good and bad, but you just know she'll get that all sorted out and hook up with Three. Oh, there's also gruesome killings, bits of gore here and there, and a plane crash killing all 147 aboard bad guys will be bad guys. And the way this story ends (no spoiler tags for that) makes it a much bigger spoof of spy literature than it seemed to be most of the way through. I found myself laughing out loud again and again, and that would never happen if she weren't also quite sincere, and not forever obsessed with looks and clothes like some other heroines it's a nice set-up for comedy. To increase their substance in the bureaucracy, Two and Three are instructed to find a recruit Two brings in Five, aka Macbeth, who could play linebacker for an American football team and has a criminal record and inclinations and Sophie makes Six when Three (Luke, remember) likes the gumption she shows by chasing after a bad guy through the airport baggage belt at great risk to herself when the regular police don't show up. The agency that takes Sophie on, a forgotten branch of British military intelligence called Special Operations 17, has dwindled to a staff of four: the boss, called One the master spies, Two (aka Maria) and Three (aka Luke) and Four, a factotum named Alexa who holds the secret office and its operation together. The structure and routines of a British international airport are written from experience, and that really helps the story along. The first-person narration takes us into the mind, heart, and soul of a genuine Ditsy Blonde named Sophie Green, who is of course recruited to be a most unlikely spy, all while working as an airport check-in clerk. A very pleasant, light spy spoof, easy and quick to read.
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