War Damage

by Elizabeth Wilson

London in the aftermath of WW2 is a beaten down, hungry place, so it's no wonder that Regine Milner's Sunday house parties in her Hampstead home are so popular. Everyone comes to Reggie's on a ballet dancers and cabinet ministers, left-over Mosleyites alongside flamboyant homosexuals like Freddie Buckingham. And when Freddie turns up dead on the Heath one Sunday night there is no shortage of suspects. "War Damage" is both a high-class thriller and a wonderful evocation of Britain staggering back to its feet after the privations of the War. And in Regine Milner it possesses a truly memorable heroine. She's full of secrets - just what did happen in Shanghai before the war? - and surprises - Reggie's living proof that sexual experimentation was alive and well long before the sixties.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Novels, LGBT

330 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 2009

About the author

Elizabeth Wilson is a pioneer in the development of fashion studies, and has been a university professor, feminist campaigner and activist. Her writing career began in the ‘underground’ magazines of the early 1970s, (Frendz, Red Rag, Spare Rib, Come Together) before she became an academic. She's written for the Guardian and her non-fiction books include Adorned in Dreams (1985, 2003), The Sphinx in the City (1992) (shortlisted for the Manchester Odd Fellows Prize), Bohemians (2000) and Love Game (2014) (long listed for the William Hill sportswriting prize), as well as six crime novels, including War Damage (2009) and The Girl in Berlin (2012) (long listed for the Golden Dagger Award).

There is more than one author with this name in the database. This is the disambiguation profile for authors named Elizabeth Wilson.

Reviews

[Carey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many flawed characters, too many sub plots made this a confusing and ultimately unsatisfying read.

[Ganesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read especially for its descriptions of London for those familiar with its surrounds. The glamour, hedonism and narcissism of some of the main characters including a bohemian Theatre crowd is in stark contrast to the bleak backdrop and austerity of foggy post war London. Atmospheric and descriptive with the ability to transport you to that period through some memorable though flawed characters. Warning- This book may contain one or two confronting / uncomfortable scenes.

[Louise Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing evocation of post war London as society hostess Regine tries to unravel the mystery of who killed one of her Sunday soiree guests. Gusty in parts and interesting exploration of the sexual and political intrigue of the post-war middle classes.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read. Atmosphere of post war London well rendered. Though not sure how they got from Smithfield to Aldersgate tube - even in the fog!

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a bit of a soft spot for mysteries and thrillers set in the years before, during, and after World War II, and this 1949 London-set book ticked all the boxes. The problem is that tries to tick far too many other boxes too, resulting in a herky-jerky, overstuffed and overpopulated story. The author clearly read and absorbed a lot about the cultural history of austerity-era Britain, but struggled with finding the right balance between injecting period detail and getting lost in a sea of possibilities.

Regine "Reggie" Milner is a 34-year-old red-haired beauty, who left her wild young years and first husband behind in wartime Shanghai, and is now married to a respectable art historian at the British Museum. The highlight of her life seems to be the Sunday afternoon salons she hosts in her Hampstead house. One frequent guest is her old friend Freddie, a gossipy homosexual photographer connected to the London ballet scene. When he turns up murdered on Hampstead Heath the night after one of her gatherings, the police are soon along to start poking into the secrets of both Reggie and her guests.

All of which sounds fine, except that there are far too many guests, with far too many secrets, and everyone is either trying to seduce one another, or hates one another. One major subplot involves Reggie's secret past, another involves the remnants of Oswald Mosley's fascist movement, then there's a missing necklace, all kinds of blackmail, compromising photos, an Irish nationalist, a cabinet minister, a missing will, a detective with a crush on Reggie, and even a lame Venetian epilogue set some 20 years later. It's just too many people and too much crammed into too small a space.

The book would have been vastly improved by stripping away a lot of more lurid aspects and potboiler background, so that the mood and tone of a slowly recovering London could have come through.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jag älskar whodunits och speciellt de som utspelas under första eller andra världskriget. Jag gillar allt ifrån den historiska förankringen till att försöka lista ut vem det är som begått brottet och sedan få reda på varför. Det är som hjärngympa utan att du behöver göra särskilt mycket. Favoriten är helt klart Agatha Christies romaner men jag försöker att hitta nya författare som jag också gillar.

War Damage av Elizabeth Wilson var ett sådant försök. Romanen handlar om Regine Milner som ska försöka finna svaret på vem det är som har mördat hennes vän Freddie. Varje söndag håller hon och hennes man tillställningar hemma i sitt vardagsrum och det var efter en sådan tillställning som Freddie hittades mördad. Alla som var inbjudna den söndagen är nu mordmisstänkt och Regine känner att det är upp till henne att finna mördaren.

Trots att boken inte är särskilt djup är det en stark bok. Den har ett bra språk, fina miljöbeskrivningar och en intressant handling. Dessutom var den oerhört snabbläst. Jag läste den på tåget från Arlanda och var färdig på tre-fyra timmar. Det är en jättebra whodunit på det viset. Det enda som jag inte gillade var att det var så många namn nämnda och lite för mycket sidospår. Jag var egentligen aldrig intresserad av poliserna och rusade ofta igenom deras del av boken. Jag tycker att den hade varit ännu bättre om Regine var den enda berättaren, så som det ofta är i Agatha Christies romaner. Jag var också lite störd av sidospåret med hennes väninna och politikern. Det hade jag kunnat leva utan.

Hur det än må vara med diverse sidospår är det en bra bok med riktigt noirkänsla. Om du vill läsa något snabbt men spännande kan jag rekommendera denna, dessutom snygga, roman av Elizabeth Wilson!

[Maia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another of those books I'd give 2.5 stars. This is a solid, well-created piece of fiction, lauded as a mystery but more psychological drama, which, nonetheless, for me never quite hit the mark. It's set in postwar London--and the city in this particular time is well described--a period (and place) I've read a lot about, but somehow it never feels 100% authentic (not if you've read, as I have, a lot of books about the time actually written at that time). Ostensibly, it's about people who have been transformed by the rather surreal experience of living through WWII (an obsession with the Brits which is by now wearing thin) and now can't keep up with how these lives have to be transformed yet again to the 'reality' of postwar peacetime. Problem is, most of these characters are clearly drawn from 21st C human perceptions (take the apparent 'beauty' and her feminist insights or the over-the-top gay man) and thus don't totally ring true. In the end, the most interesting insight is what precisely constitutes 'damage' and how is it possible for such damage to be healed, if at all.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elizabeth Wilson's WAR DAMAGE is a dark psychological drama set in post-WW2 Great Britain. The book jacket characterizes it as a mystery--and perhaps it is, because it evokes the same fear, distrust, betrayal, and sense of impending doom that occurs in some of the great classics of film noir. And, I love film noir---so why did I find this book so unsettling? Maybe because there was not a single character that the reader could really admire or bond with: everyone was flawed. And the author created so many sub-plots, red-herrings and penchants for wrong-doing that I became totally muddled.

This is one of many novels that seem to be focusing on World War II and its lasting effect on people. That aspect of Wilson's book appealed to me, but I felt that her flawed personalities would have gone wrong with or without the war. I am not sorry I read this book; I just wish that someone had emerged from the crowded cast of characters to add a touch of humanity.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This smart, atmospheric mystery set in the early 1950s was an entertaining read. The plot is as foggy and swirling as the smog that envelops the dingy London streets in which it is set. It's not really a whodunnit, because it's nigh on impossible to follow all the clues and the many secrets the characters are hiding from each other. Even at the end you are not entirely sure who did what. It's all about atmosphere and period detail, and I enjoyed it for that.

Why are there so many books nowadays set during WWII and just after, I wonder? It seems to have become a very attractive period. Perhaps because of the austerity and gloom?

[Sue Gedge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because of the period in which it's set but was ultimately disappointed. The background is reasonably well evoked, but the mystery is somewhat shallow, and, more damningly, there are no sympathetic characters apart from, perhaps, the young policeman whom Regine, a deceitful, duplicitious bitch, thrusts to one side. Worst still, I felt the author expected the reader to admire the amoral Regine. Overall, not recommended, although technically, the book is well written.

[Alistair · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the post war austerity setting but the bohemian literary , ballet , artistic world that the author creates with a bit of fascist nastiness thrown in is ruined by characters who all deserve a hard slap in the face . They are so tiresome and I had great difficulty remembering who was who in the end . The murder is solved in a a totally unrealistic way . I barely can recall whodunit . The underworld of spivs and racketeers that briefly enters the story sounds much more interesting .

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up in London, since the setting 1947 postwar London appealed to me. Wilson does evoke an atmosphere of suspicion and fear in postwar London. The rise of socialism, blackmail, Shanghai mystery during the war, and so on contribute to the book's suspense. But the book left me with an empty feeling of despair.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun period mystery/thriller. Bogs down a bit towards the end, and too many characters to keep them all straight at times, but characterization was good and the atmospherics pretty wonderfully dreary and creepy.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A smart, smoggy mystery set in post-war London involving a fiery redhead, a jade necklace, homosexuals, and of course, Nazis. An absorbing, transporting read.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light-weight whodunnit enjoyable for its Austerity (post-war) Britain setting which makes interesting comparison to Austerity (post-Blair/Brown) Britain

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like it and did not persevere past chapter two

[Pru Sly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seemed to be going along quite nicely, but never felt that it really resolved itself, so was left dissatisfied in the end. Heigh ho.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

A crime story set just after the war, this book is fast paced, the sense of place and time is beautifully created and the characters are vivid.

[Hazel Croft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable novel capturing the atmosphere of austerity Britain, and its post-war repressions