Charming 'who dunnit' set in a country village during World War II England
Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders (A Woman of World War II Mystery #1) by Tessa Arlen
Ok, so a Poppy Redfern mystery is not in the same class, as yet, to Foyle's War, but she is quite a delightful and rather winning protagonist.
Poppy is the shy granddaughter to repected English landed gentry. Their house has been given over to the war effort and housing an American airfield base.
So the Yank have landed! There are some attempts at developing relationships between the two communities but then things go horribly wrong. Two young women are murdered and a third was nearly done for. The Americans are in the spotlight as those responsible.
Poppy Redfern and her alter ego Ilona, along with Bessie the dog, (whom I adore!) a welsh herding dog apparently, (I can't decide if this means Bessie's a corgi or something else) set out to catch the muderer. Then there's American Lieutenant Griff O’Neal, whom Poppy doesn't know whether to like or dislike.
Of course things are so much more complicated than this. Poppy has all but discounted the Americans until a red herring is strewn across her path. I thought I'd sort of figured out the culprit, but in the end I kept running into brick walls. So I was kept guessing until almost the end.
I suspect the series title, A Woman of World War II, implies a whole lot more than we know at this moment. I can't help but wonder how it will unpack and where Poppy will go from her humble beginnings in this first in the series, as an Air Raid Warden to where she ends up at the conclusion of the novel. Poppy is certainly a sleuth to look out for in the future.
A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley
****
Poppy is the shy granddaughter to repected English landed gentry. Their house has been given over to the war effort and housing an American airfield base.
So the Yank have landed! There are some attempts at developing relationships between the two communities but then things go horribly wrong. Two young women are murdered and a third was nearly done for. The Americans are in the spotlight as those responsible.
Poppy Redfern and her alter ego Ilona, along with Bessie the dog, (whom I adore!) a welsh herding dog apparently, (I can't decide if this means Bessie's a corgi or something else) set out to catch the muderer. Then there's American Lieutenant Griff O’Neal, whom Poppy doesn't know whether to like or dislike.
Of course things are so much more complicated than this. Poppy has all but discounted the Americans until a red herring is strewn across her path. I thought I'd sort of figured out the culprit, but in the end I kept running into brick walls. So I was kept guessing until almost the end.
I suspect the series title, A Woman of World War II, implies a whole lot more than we know at this moment. I can't help but wonder how it will unpack and where Poppy will go from her humble beginnings in this first in the series, as an Air Raid Warden to where she ends up at the conclusion of the novel. Poppy is certainly a sleuth to look out for in the future.
A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley
****
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