War Brides by Helen Bryan

With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new sort of normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes. Nightly air raids become grimly mundane. The tightening vice of rationing curtails every comfort. Men leave to fight and die. And five women forge an unlikely bond of friendship that will change their lives forever.

Alice Osbourne, the stolid daughter of the late vicar, is reeling from the news that Richard Fairfax broke their engagement to marry Evangeline Fontaine, an American girl from the Deep South. Evangeline’s arrival causes a stir in the village—but not the chaos that would ensue if they knew her motives for being there. Scrappy Elsie Pigeon is among the poor of London who see the evacuations as a chance to escape a life of destitution. Another new arrival is Tanni Zayman, a young Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Europe and now waits with her newborn son, certain that the rest of her family is safe and bound to show up any day. And then there’s Frances Falconleigh, a madcap, fearless debutante whose father is determined to keep her in the countryside and out of the papers.

As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together. They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies—hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst—and find remarkable strength within themselves to help their friends. Theirs is a war-forged loyalty that will outlast the fiercest battle and endure years and distance.

When four of the women return to Crowmarsh Priors for a VE Day celebration fifty years later, television cameras focus on the heartwarming story of these old women as war brides of a bygone age, but miss the more newsworthy angle. The women’s mission is not to commemorate or remember—they’ve returned to settle a score and avenge one of their own.

A compelling story about a group of people brought together by various means to an East Sussex village leading up to the Second World War. There is a Jewish refugee from Europe, a cockney lass who was sent to become a housemaid by her mother to escape London and the possibility of air raids, a flighty socialite - who is really anything but flighty - an American bride, and the daughter of the village’s vicar. 

 I particularly liked the final chapter which gave a happier resolution to another mystery that occurred along the way.

The tale is intriguing and based on factual events.

10/10

Slaves Of Obsession by Anne Perry

The year is 1861. The American Civil War has just begun, and London arms dealer Daniel Alberton is becoming a very wealthy man. His quiet dinner party seems remote indeed from the passions rending America. Yet Investigator Monk and his bride, Hester, sense growing tensions and barely concealed violence. For two of the guests are Americans, each vying to buy Alberton's armaments. Soon Monk and Hester's forebodings are fulfilled as one member of the party is brutally murdered and two others disappear - along with Alberton's entire inventory of weapons.

Not the best book in the series, the ending was a bit predictable, but still a good story told well.

7/10

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team tasked with reintroducing fourteen grey wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but a broken Aggie, too. However, Inti is not the woman she once was, and may be in need of rewilding herself.

Despite fierce opposition from the locals, Inti’s wolves surprise everyone by thriving, and she begins to let her guard down, even opening up to the possibility of love. But when a local farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them, testing every instinct she has.

But if her wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will she do when the man she’s been seeing becomes the main suspect?

Fantastic book. I enjoyed the thriller elements as well as the details about the wolves. Who killed the nasty, wife-bashing man? Was it really a wolf? (spoiler- it wasn't!)

10/10

Falling In Love by Donna Leon

Inspector Brunetti is trying to help an old acquaintance, opera star Flavia Petrelli, find out who has been sending her flowers far too close for comfort, and more urgently who has been attempting to kill people close to her. 

A decent story, lots of detail about opera, well written and not too traumatic. Not her best.

7/10

Force Of Nature by Jane Harper

Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.

The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.

Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case - and Alice knew secrets. About the company she worked for and the people she worked with.

The characters were complex and interesting. The mystery was engrossing. The atmosphere of the  bush was beautifully captured. Lots of twists and turns.  I'm really looking forward to the next book.

10/10

The Dawn Patrol by Don Winslow

Every morning Boone Daniels catches waves with the other members of The Dawn Patrol: four men and one woman as single-minded about surfing as he is. Or nearly. They have "real j-o-b-s"; Boone, however, works as a PI just enough to keep himself afloat. But Boone's most recent gig-investigating an insurance scam—has unexpectedly led him to a ghost from his past. And while he may have to miss the biggest swell of his surfing career, this job is about to give him a wilder ride than anything he's ever encountered.

It is an easy read, with enjoyable characters and a hero you root for but is largely free from tension, suspense or twists. Lots of scumbag characters, hookers that die or need saving, the beautiful ex, the beautiful but acerbic female insurance lawyer - all well-written but very cliched.

7/10

The Silent Cry by Anne Perry

In the dead of night in a notorious area of Victorian London's East End known as St Giles, a factory girl stumbles over the bloody bodies of two City gentlemen. When Detective John Evan finally arrives at the scene, he is confronted by a most difficult investigation. First he must identify the men. Then he must find out why men of means and social standing would go to such a sordid area. Most importantly, who are their assailants? And how could they escape unharmed and unnoticed?

Mercifully the younger victim is not quite dead. Having sustained terrible internal injuries, he's later released home from hospital severely traumatised and unable to speak - to be told that the other victim, his father, is dead, and Hester Latterly has been employed to help nurse him back to full recovery.

Good plot with many twists and turns. It turned out to be the father and his friends rather thn the son who was raping and beating the women.

8/10