Freshly graduated from a rigorous training program in all things spy craft, former typist Evelyne Redfern is eager for her first assignment as a field agent helping Britain win the war. However, when she learns her first task is performing a simple security test at Blackthorn Park, a requisitioned manor house in the sleepy Sussex countryside, she can’t help her initial disappointment. Making matters worse, her handler is to be David Poole, a fellow agent who manages to be both strait-laced and dashing in annoyingly equal measure. However, Evelyne soon realizes that Blackthorn Park is more than meets the eye, and an upcoming visit from Winston Churchill means that security at the secret weapons research and development facility is of the utmost importance.
When Evelyne discovers Blackthorn Park’s chief engineer dead in his office, her simple assignment becomes more complicated. Evelyne must use all of her—and David’s—detection skills to root out who is responsible and uncover layers of deception that could change the course of the war.
WW2 is a very big and interesting theme for most historical mystery writers. There are so many things that have been speculated on, and so many deaths and strategies that are still coming to light. Many of the writers, like myself, are also learning things about their grandparents who might have been soldiers or even Occupied Europe survivors. However, it is my first novel by Julia Kelly, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I loved Evelyne, and her sassy spunky qualities. She is a perfect female protagonist for the time. She is borderline rude after having been polite to everyone but especially with any male characters. She is clever, intelligent, and believes in doing the right thing. Her relationship with David shows that there is an obvious growth there that I missed because I had not read the first novel, but that makes me want too even more.
I didn’t suspect the killer! I thought there was something shady and off about the individual, but it wasn’t being the murderer. I thought it was someone else, for the exact discovery that Evelyne made, and that makes the novel, and its plot well thought out.
Overall, I rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars.
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