Death in a Blackout
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The first in a brand-new WWII historical mystery series introduces WPC Billie Harkness - a female police officer who risks her life to protect the home front in the British coastal city of Hull.
1940. Britain is at war. Rector's daughter Wilhelmina Harkness longs to do her duty for her country, but when her strict mother forbids her to enlist, their bitter argument has devasting consequences.
Unable to stay in the village she loves, Wilhelmina - reinventing herself as Billie - spends everything she has on a one-way ticket up north. Hull is a distant, dangerous city, but Billie is determined to leave her painful memories behind and start afresh, whatever the cost.
The last thing Billie expects on her first evening in Hull, however, is to be caught in the city's first air raid - or to stumble across the body of a young woman, suspiciously untouched by debris.
If the air raid didn't kill the glamorous stranger, what did? Billie is determined to get justice, and her persistence earns her an invitation to the newly formed Women's Police Constabulary. But as the case unfolds, putting her at odds with both high-ranking members of the force as well as the victim's powerful family, Billie begins to wonder if she can trust her new friends and colleagues . . . or if someone amongst them is working for the enemy.
DEATH IN A BLACKOUT is a perfect pick for fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Rhys Bowen and Susan Elia MacNeal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In 1940, Billie Harkness, the protagonist of this so-so series launch set in England from Ellicott (the Beryl and Edwina mysteries), tries to join the war effort after her clergyman father becomes a German POW, but her controlling mother, Martha, who wants her to adhere to traditional domestic roles, prevents her from doing so. Martha's subsequent death in a hit-and-run accident prompts Billie to leave her small village of Barton St. Giles for the city of Hull, where she's been invited to live by a cousin she's never met. The move comes with a radical life change as well. After Billie comes across a dead woman in a café who was ostensibly killed in an air raid, her attempts to identify the body lead her to accept an offer to join Hull's new women's police constabulary unit. That position enables her to pursue her suspicions of foul play. The whodunit doesn't compel, and while Billie engenders sympathy, she doesn't leave much of an impression. The concept—probing a homicide amid the chaos of WWII—has been done plenty of times before and better.
Customer Reviews
Death in a Blackout
I loved this book. The plot was intricate and kept me guessing. I really enjoyed reading about women constables during the Blitz. The use of period detail such as Horlicks, bomb shelters, women’s auxiliaries, occupations where the men were considered essential and prohibited from enlisting, etc., made the time period come alive.
I really recommend this book and look forward to more.