Betrayal at Blackthorn Park by Julia Kelly

 

2nd in the series, it's a quick and convincing immersion in Evelyne’s world of SOE, Britain's WW2 Special Operations Executive. This time Evelyne's been through the special agent training program to learn to pick locks, infiltrate suspicious locations, and survive in enemy territory. Dashing David Poole from their first, almost accidental op is back, newly promoted to be her handler for her first post-training assignment. It’s supposed to be a simple test of security at one of the many rural estates turned over to various aspects of war work. In and out with no-one the wiser. 

But best laid plans rarely survive contact with the enemy, in this case a sneaky thief who is making off with essential supplies (and possibly plans) for the building of small bombs and other weapons essential to the work of SOE saboteurs in France. Soon Evelyne's facing a corpse and David's dashing to her rescue... even though he's not really needed. Evelyne draws on her previous experience and training to instruct the constable who must secure the scene while waiting for more experienced officers to arrive.

Modern women will delight in Evelyne's take-charge ways, and appreciate David's often stepping back and letting her get on with it rather than (as is more realistic still) taking over every scene to do the interrogating himself. The writing is crisp and clear, the settings economical and easily visualized. The plot moves along at a good clip without sacrificing the credibility of relationships between not only Evelyne and David but with other characters as well. Indeed, one of this book's great strengths is how well it portrays the world of wartime Britain, where any cottage in any village might be housing staff for some secret research facility nearby and nobody can tell even their best friend what their war work really consists of. Britain may never be tested like that again, and that's a good thing, because the green and pleasant land that banded together with enduring fortitude and wry humour to withstand the onslaught of one of the largest armies Europe has ever seen is barely imaginable today.

Any fan of Golden Age mysteries will thoroughly enjoy the contemporaneous crime novels that Evelyne reads on train trips and in other idle moments..

If you've chosen the audiobook, you too may find the narration very uneven. The first phrase of a sentence flies out with tween-girl speed and inflection, while the rest is slow and portentous as a wartime speech by Winston Churchill: stirring to hear for 15 minutes in an emergency but wearing on the ear, and the patience when it goes on for hours, regardless of which character is speaking and whether their content is deep and serious or debating a new haircut.

#NetGalley #WW2 #spies