Murder on the Home Front
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- USD 1.99
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- USD 1.99
Publisher Description
Disrespect, disdain - and dead bodies! It's all in a day's work for WPC Billie Harkness, a pioneering female police officer protecting the home front in this gripping WWII British historical mystery.
"A fresh and different take on WWII stories with an appealing young heroine" New York Times bestselling author Rhys Bowen on Death in a Blackout
1940. It's been a month since rector's daughter Billie Harkness left her rural village to make a fresh start in the northern city of Hull. Now she has a new home and an exciting new job as one of only two female police constables in the whole city. But Hull still feels like a foreign country, and some people are less than impressed by the idea of a woman doing a 'man's job'.
Facing disrespect from her colleagues and suspicion from the public, Billie throws herself into her work. The tasks she's assigned might be menial, but she's determined to do her bit for the war effort. The chance to prove her worth comes when during a search for a missing air raid shelter inspector, she makes a shocking discovery: his dead body, in a shelter that's been stripped of all its valuables.
The officers summoned to investigate the scene believe it's an open and shut case, but Billie's not so sure. Asking questions means making enemies though - and little does she know that vile rumors about her are spreading, with the power to spoil everything she's tried so hard to achieve . . .
Murder on the Home Front is the second stunning mystery in the new WPC Billie Harkness series. It's a great choice for readers of Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen and Susan Elia MacNeal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Ellicott's intriguing second Billie Harkness mystery (after 2022's Death in a Blackout), naive rector's daughter Harkness is settling into her position as one of two women constables in the British city of Hull in the early days of WWII. Harkness may be inexperienced, but she has a talent for detecting, which doesn't sit well with her male colleagues, who believe policing is men's work. One afternoon, Harkness receives a report that a man posing as an air raid shelter inspector might be robbing shelters of supplies to sell on the black market. Harkness and her partner, Special Const. Peter Upton, follow up and find a man strangled to death in one of the emptied shelters. As the investigation unfolds, they discover the murdered man was involved in several shady enterprises, one of which may have gotten him killed. Harkness's colleagues don't think much of the case, but she suspects there are threads to pull—even if doing so might make her some powerful enemies. Ellicott seamlessly weaves the mystery plot into a fascinating look at life on the British home front. Historical mystery fans will find much to enjoy. Agents: Meg Ruley and Christina Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency.
