Julia Kelly (3)

It's November, 1940. Evelyne Redfern has been assigned a desk-jockey post after her previous harrowing undercover assignment. Being so restless, she eagerly awaits orders for her next mission. While waiting, she receives a message from her long absent father, seeking her assistance. Why should she trust him? Frankly, she doesn't. He was last seen in Lisbon and ironically (or perhaps not so), that is where she and her partner David Poole are heading off to. A highly valued asset has show more disappeared and they've been sent to investigate. It's a massive game of cat and mouse as spies from all sides are found in this supposed neutral city. Secrets are shared and deals are made. All is not as it seems. Yet, can Evelyne and David unravel the mess and save the operation. Only time will tell.

Ms. Kelly has delivered yet another spectacular installment in the Evelyne Redfern mystery series. Her prose is elegant and at times, quite humorous. Her world building richly envisioned. The story's tension builds gradually holding the reader in thrall until the story resolves itself into a most satisfying conclusion. If historical fiction with a built in mystery appeals, then I highly commend this book to you.

I am grateful to author Julia Kelly and her publisher, Minotaur Books, for having provided a complimentary uncorrected digital galley of this book through NetGalley. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone.

Publisher:‎ Minotaur Books
Publication Date: ‎October 1, 2024
Number of Pages:‎ 320
ISBN:‎ 978-1250865519 show less

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: With mystery, intrigue, and the hints of romance international bestselling author Julia Kelly is known for, Evelyne Redfern returns in Betrayal at Blackthorn Park.

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 show more 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.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: After the four-star detail-filled atmospheric romantic thriller that was A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL, my expectations and hopes were high for this second read featuring Evelyne and David.

I got the period details I wanted, I got the relationship development I expected (minimal), and the mystery element was interesting. But the second time is so often just a bit...samey...isn't it? We've been here, now we want something to happen. Author Kelly chose to meet that desire fairly late in the proceedings, setting us up for a sequel.

The fact that this is a romantic suspense novel far more than a puzzle-solvong one is just fine by me. Evelyne and David are well-matched, though not perfectly mated. That would get a bit dull. Instead they're given enough friction by their shared career as confidential agents of The Powerful at a tremendously consequential crossroads in history to keep their focus clear and mutual; there's an enemy to fight, a reason to keep fighting, and a lot of work to put into that fight.

Witty banter is a risky narrative strategy in a book without an explicit romance. David and Evelyne are clearly headed that way, but at times their palaver gives the future of the game away. This results in oddly reducing the tension that so many series stories rely on. Just ask Moonlighting's producers how letting that drop works out...yet, despite this (I suppose inevitable) middle space in a series being unsettled, the way Author Kelly words things is enough fun, the period evocation is so skillfully interwoven, and the history treated with such respect that I can't help but bump this fun book two of more to come up a quarter star. I'm especially calling out Evelyne's character-appropriate, but period-shocking, willingness to chafe against what she sees as unfair boundaries set for her because little is expected of her in terms of ability. This is something I suspect many intelligent people from disrespected groups and backgrounds relate to. Events transpire that give Evelyne reason to reassess her responses...sometimes training wheels save the savant from a bad fall.

All in all, a series I'm enjoying more as it unfolds. An increasingly rare experience that I genuinely appreciate. show less

I was just starting to get sick of the inter-generational trend in historical fiction - a young person in the modern age finds a mysterious trinket or letter that leads them discover their connection to the past, to people who lived during tumultuous times. It can be a gimmick or forced but I was so happy to see how well it worked here.

This is the story of three strong women at the start of WWII: Nora who works in the Home Office; Hazel, a matchmaker; and Marie, a German expat who is a show more secretary at a university . It also includes Samantha, the modern day granddaughter of Marie, who has just discovered a past her grandmother never spoke of. That leads Samantha to connect with Nora and the story seamlessly spins out from there.

Having been friends since boarding school, the connection between the three women and everyone who comes into their circle is incredibly strong. It is one of the best part of this story. They are working girls from different backgrounds but they are never in competition, they know their minds and work in extremely interesting environments. These characters are so unique (for the time period) but so relatable. So when war starts and Marie is the focus of hate and in danger of being interred for being a German, the friends pull together to help.

I will say the ending is predictable only because of the inter-generational sideline but it is also heartwarming. Add that to the vivid setting of London just before the Blitz and the historical knowledge of the author, this book is a rich story of friendship and connection.

Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy. show less

The Publisher Says: From Julia Kelly, internationally bestselling author of The Last Dance of the Debutante, comes the first in the mysterious and immersive Parisian Orphan series, A Traitor in Whitehall.

1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister show more Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms.

However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.

With her quick wit, sharp eyes, and determination, will Evelyne be able to find out who’s been selling England’s secrets and catch a killer, all while battling her growing attraction to David?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Period details FTW. I was reading along thinking how little I actually knew about life in WWII when the main character finds a body in a place I had no vaguest awareness of the need for or existence of: A sun treatment room.

A what now? Sun-treatment? What on Earth is that?

It was about that time that my interest and pleasure in the read sharpened to the point of reading past my bedtime. I'm a mystery fan anyway, being a big believer in ma'at and the scales of justice needing to be balanced. The victim of the murder wasn't a lovely person, as is customary in series mysteries set in the Halls of Power. It was a lovely grace note, the first of several, that the victim was discovered in the sun-treatment room. This afforded the author a perfect opening to reveal this very interesting, perfectly sensible detail's existence. It gives the story an extra gloss of period authenticity, as does Evelyne's Agatha Christie-reading habit. The author's an experienced historical novelist and it shows in these sorts of unexpected moments that firmly root the story in time without becoming stodged up like a research paper gone metastatic.

Evelyne, our main character, is an oddball in the world where she's been plonked because nothing in her background suggests she's a prospect for Greater Things...an unwanted daughter placed in a boarding school by her always-absent father after her mother's death when Evelyne was thirteen, she's been given few solid opportunities to develop her intellect beyond the ordinary. As is typical for series mysteries, as fans of the genre know, she's got the most important character trait of a sleuth: Ungovernable curiosity, starting from when her Maman (a French lady, who raised her daughter mostly in France) supposedly committed suicide. Luckily her absent rich-bastard father's friend circle includes powerful people who need that precise characteristic in a woman of presentable lineage (if always stained by the loucheness of her foreignness), adequate education, fluency in French, and unexceptionable looks.

Evelyne's sudden arrival in the bunkers...referred to by the acronym "CWR" or "Cabinet War Rooms"...of busy workers surrounding the Prime Minister isn't cause for anyone to take much notice, exactly as the Powers That Be need it to be. She blends into the scenery. As her job is to ferret out a traitor who's already established in those hallowed halls, everything's proceeding acording to plan.

Until someone's murdered. (There's a reason I'm being coy about who's been murdered. If you know too soon, there's no way you won't know who the titular traitor is.) The murder makes everything higher stakes and involves Evelyne with the inevitable love interest, David. Another facet of the series mystery is the de rigueur presence of a love interest or interests. David's clearly being positioned for this. This is, for me, the least interesting facet of the story. How would David, a senior aide established in the hierarchy, even think to team up with Evelyne, a mere girl and of known-but-stained ancestry? In 1940s Britain? That high in the Government (even if it's not quite the way we're led to believe)? Hmm, said my inner skeptic. Most especially I find the borning relationship between them Doomed because David prefers American thrillers to Evelyne's beloved Mrs. Christie. This is a less bridgeable gap than between a reader and a mundane.

While the usual first-mystery flaws are present, eg too much information comes too easily into Evelyne's grasp for her position in the hierarchy and people "grit" and "roar" things far too often, the author is clearly a skilled storyteller. The TV adaptation unspooled before my eyes, in six-part ITV period-mystery glory. It's the kind of book one reads with keen pleasure in its strengths, and forgives its lapses readily. At least this picky one did.

If you're in the market for historical mysteries, this one will scratch the itch. Nothing too deep, nothing too fluffy, just the right level of interesting background and emotional investment possibilities. Bring the sequel! show less