Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Book Author: Julia Kelly

Newly trained in spycraft and now part of Great Britain’s Special Investigations Unit, Evelyne Redfern is sent on her first assignment.  She’s disappointed in the seemingly prosaic nature of it, to perform a security test at Blackthorne Park and discover how several of the specialized materials used there have gone missing, but of course she’s determined to succeed at this task.

She’s not the only agent in the Unit who is disappointed.  David Poole would rather be working in the field, but he’s told he will have to remain in London and act as Evelyne’s handler, or supervisor, for her first job.

Putting additional pressure on the pair is the fact that Prime Minister Winston Churchill is scheduled to arrive at Blackthorne Park later in the week to see a series of demonstrations of the weapons produced there.  Time, therefore, is of the essence in discovering who is responsible for the missing materials.

At ten o’clock on the evening of her arrival in the town of Benstead, Evelyne surreptitiously enters the grounds of the Park.  She has just picked the lock on the front door and entered the house when she hears a gunshot.  She rushes to the room where she believes the sound came from, the room according to the blueprint she was given before she left London is Sir Nigel’s office.  There she discovers the body of the scientist, in a pool of blood.

Given that Sir Nigel’s corpse was found at his desk with his gun in his right hand, suicide seems obvious.  Evelyne, however, feels that something is not right about the scene, and when the coroner arrives he confirms her suspicion.

Although the cause of the death was the gunshot wound, the doctor points out a faint red pinprick on Sir Nigel’s neck to Evelyne and David.  Dr. Morrison believes that someone stood behind him, used a hypodermic needle with a sedative on him, and then put the gun in the scientist’s hand and pulled the trigger.

Evelyne and David learn Sir Nigel was not an easy man to work for, and there is a great deal of tension among the several members of the Park.  His behavior had become increasingly difficult over the past few months, whether due to the missing materials or something else the investigators must discover.  The stress levels are high at the mansion, and the upcoming visit of the prime minister is doing nothing to help.

One of the many delightful things about this novel is its excellent sense of time and place.  The time is November 1940, the very beginning of World War II, and the place is one of the many stately homes/mansions in various English counties that were requisitioned by the government to aid the war effort.  The reader is immediately drawn into the world of food and clothing rationing, disrupted careers, and the various emotions of a group of people living and working together not by choice.

Julia Kelly has written an outstanding mystery again.  The characters are beautifully drawn, and the plot is suspenseful and believable.  Betrayal at Blackthorne Park ends with the promise of a third adventure for Evelyne and David, a promise this reader hopes the author will keep.

You can read more about Julia Kelly at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Evelyne Redfern, through no fault of her own, is known in both France and England as “The Parisian Orphan.”  The only child of an ill-fated marriage between a French woman and an English man, she is sent to boarding school in England at the insistence of her father after the death of her beloved mother.

Now she is in London, just as the blitz is beginning.  She is working at an ordnance factory and living in a boardinghouse with her best friend Moira when she’s approached by an old friend of her parents who invites her to a job interview the following morning.

Mr. Fletcher obviously is working for some type of secret government agency, but exactly what its nature is, is never told to Evelyne.  He tells her that he is looking for someone to work in the typing pool at what will become the War Offices, a 1,100 room building that houses Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his extended staff.  But it is not a typing or secretarial job that Fletcher is hiring her for.

Everything she learns and does there is top secret, which is why he has her sign the Official Secrets Act.  He wants her to “monitor” what is going on in the building, and again Fletcher stresses that she must tell no one about her new position or what is expected of her.

Right from the start, Evelyne realizes there is a problem at the War Offices.  Somehow, in spite of all the precautions that are taken, information, some important and some not, is leaking.  The fear is that it’s just a matter of time before something vital falls into the hands of the Nazis.

There is a fascinating cast of characters at the WO.  The head of the typing pool is Miss Wilkes, who runs the pool with an iron hand.  The secretary/typist who gets most of the interesting assignments is Jean Plinkton, who seems to know more about the other workers than she should.  And then there are the various men who help make the policies–Mr. Faylen, who before the war was a neat and punctual man but who has become fussy and disorganized, blaming others for his problems; Mr. Pearson, who is a bit too friendly with all the typists; and Mr. Poole, a rather handsome man with an unknown background.

On Evelyne’s fourth day on the job, Miss Wilkes sends her for her first sun lamp treatment, a requirement because of the amount of time the typists live and work underground.  As Evelyne enters the room where the lamps have been set up, she sees a woman who appears to be asleep, her head resting on one of her arms.  As Evelyne gets closer, she realizes that what she thought to be a red design on the woman’s white sweater is, in fact, blood.  Then she hears the sound of a metal bolt swiping across the room’s door.  She’s locked in with a corpse.

Julia Kelly has written an absorbing mystery about 1940 London, a time when the blitz is beginning, neighborhoods are being destroyed, and the fear of a Nazi invasion is spreading through the population.  In Evelyne Redfern the author has created an engaging, clever, and fearless heroine, one who is perfect for the time she lives in.

You can read more about Julia Kelly at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.