Amateur Sleuth

Á la Anna Lee Huber’s Verity Kent and Stephanie Graves’ Olive Bright, Electra (Ellie) McDonnell has taken on a “man’s job” while much of the male workforce is away fighting World War II. Ellie is a heroine with a difference, though: she’s a former thief, from a London family that has called its safe-cracking ways to a halt. They’re now working as locksmiths and, in Ellie’s case, using those skills to aid the war effort. Ellie’s government handler, posh Major Ramsey, comes calling again in this second in the series (after A Peculiar Combination, 2021) when a young woman is found dead wearing an unusual, locked bracelet. Locksmithing again comes into play when a key turns up as part of the case, but it soon takes a back seat to Ellie’s other skills. This memorable, tough sleuth continues her investigation into the young woman’s death and her own mother’s long-ago imprisonment as the Blitz starts and a cousin at the warfront hasn’t been heard from. Happily, romance enters the picture, with Ellie pursued by both the major and a more down-to-earth family friend, Felix Lacey. The mysteries, danger, and emotional hills and valleys that are life in wartime will keep readers rapt here and wanting more from this almost-honest woman and her loving, protective circle.

Yes, another cover featuring a woman in a period outfit with her back turned towards us—except this time the book is a rollicking good mystery. It’s World War II, the U.S. has just entered the war, and Irene Ingram’s fiancé and father have both enlisted, leaving Irene to step into her father’s shoes as editor-in-chief of the Progress Herald, the local paper. Young—she’s in her early twenties—and female, Irene has to continually prove herself, whether it’s to her mother who doesn’t believe women belong in the workforce or to the newspaper staff who bridle under a woman’s leadership. When her star reporter, Moe Bauer, is discovered dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs, Irene has more pressing matters to attend to than the grousing among her staff, all the more so when she figures out that Moe was likely murdered. Then Sam Markowicz, owner of the local hardware store, becomes the victim of anti-Semitic harassment, and another man, also Jewish, is attacked in a local factory. Irene puts aside features about victory gardens and the like and dives into a criminal investigation. The setting—small time life during World War II—is a brilliant choice, and the language and references are pitch perfect. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs, Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy, and Mariah Frederick’s Jane Prescott will enjoy meeting Irene Ingram.