Dirty doings in wartime Cornwall
By book 4 of the series, you’re familiar with Birdsong, the Cornwall village of WWII, and many of its inhabitants so it’s fun to go deeper into the local culture as you armchair solve the whodunit along with Dr Bones, Lady Juliet and Detective Pearl from nearby Plymouth.
The victim is a Jewish man from Plymouth, found on Lady Juliet’s land. The suspects are hidden in plain sight. What the two amateur sleuths are missing is how to connect their suspects to the why and where.
The book deals with themes of anti-semitism, Nazi sympathizers, black market goods, children sent from London to be safe in the country, and other dirty doings of the times. Add in some outrageous sleuthing on Lady Juliet’s part, a new male friendship for Dr Bones, and some nudges from house ghost Lucy, and you have an engaging read.
What keeps it from being a solid 5 star whodunit is the author got over enthusiastic with medical terms without enough context that let you easily understand what they were about. Fortunately, I read it on Kindle so a dictionary definition was but a finger tap away. Still. It took me out of the story too many times that the narrative sometimes felt bumpy, especially since they didn’t move the story forward enough to warrant their consistent presence.
On a fun note, however, Mr Bryce Paquette from the fairy love letter novella shows up so we get to play with how that side story with Lady Victoria might pan out. Plus, it’s entertaining to see how well he engages with Lady Juliet’s stubbornness the one time they have direct involvement with each other.