Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Book Review: Murder on the Home Front by Jessica Ellicott (WPC Billie Harkness #2)

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Strong characters, mystery, and historical setting
Cons: None to be found here
The Bottom Line:
Billie’s second case
Again, captures the time well
While pages fly by



Body in the Air Raid Shelter

Last year, Jessica Ellicott introduced us to a new character.  Billie Harkness has moved to Hull in England in 1940, and she is the newest constable for the local police.  I was looking forward to seeing where the character was going to go, and the answer is the wonderful Murder on the Home Front.

As this book opens, Billie has been on the job for one month.  While she is comfortable with her partner, Peter Upton, she can tell that many of her fellow constables still aren’t open to having a women on the force even though they are under-staffed thanks to the war.  She also notices this coming from the general populace, and a day of desk duty in the office doesn’t help either group come to accept her better.

Things get more complicated when Billie and Peter find a dead body in an air raid shelter while investigating something for a citizen one day.  When Billie notices something odd about what they found on the victim, the two are assigned to the case.  Can they figure out what was really going on?

Many times when I read a historical mystery, the plot could have taken place in many time periods, which is fine.  That’s not the case here.  The details of this case, including the potential motives for the crime, could only happen in World War II Britain.  That was the case with the first one, and I was happy to see it was the case again here.  That historical background to the case makes it much more interesting, and I felt I learned a bit more about the time period while I was reading.

The story kept me hooked from start to finish.  I will admit I was wondering exactly where things were going early on.  I felt my teaser vague on purpose so you could have the fun of discovering that for yourself.  Once Billie and Peter have found the body, things are off and running.  There are several interesting clues and red herrings that kept me wondering exactly what was going on, yet when we reached the climax, everything made sense.

There is a strong sub-plot that, unfortunately, is all too truthful.  I wish it weren’t.  It should never have been.  And it will make anyone decent upset.  Having said that, I liked the way it was handled on multiple fronts.

Billie is an interesting main character.  She is new to Hull and a rector’s daughter in a small village, so she is a little naïve and a fish out of water.  Yet, she doesn’t dwell on that; instead, she works hard, does her best, and tries to figure out the rest.  And we love her for it.  I liked the growth we got in this book.

While most of the book is written from Billie’s third person point of view, we do get quite a bit from Peter’s point of view as well.  Don’t worry, these switches are always clear.  Since I really like his character, I enjoyed getting to see the action and the other characters from his point of view.  It adds some interesting context to what we are seeing unfold.

We see a little of characters who are returning from the first book in the series, but the majority of the time is spent with suspects.  They prove to be an interesting lot who are developed well for their place in the story.

Murder on the Home Front is a strong return to 1940.  If you enjoy historical mysteries, you’ll definitely want to pick it up.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

2 comments:

  1. Oh this sounds good! World War II Britain is such a fantastic setting for a mystery series. So much chaos!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that the mystery is so specific to that period!

    Thanks for sharing this review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge!

    ReplyDelete

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