Title: The War WidowAuthor: Tara Moss
Series: Billie Walker Mystery
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense
Format: ARC Kindle
No. of Pages: 352
Date of Publication: December 29, 2020
Description: The war may be officially over, but journalist Billie Walker's search for a missing young immigrant man will plunge her right back into the danger and drama she thought she'd left behind in Europe in this thrilling tale of courage and secrets set in glamorous postwar Sydney.
Sydney, 1946. Though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be home, for her the heady postwar days are tarnished by the loss of her father and the disappearance in Europe of her husband, Jack. To make matters worse, now that the war is over, the newspapers are sidelining her reporting talents to prioritize jobs for returning soldiers. But Billie is a survivor and she's determined to take control of her own future. So she reopens her late father's business, a private investigation agency, and, slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking.
At first, Billie's bread and butter is tailing cheating husbands. Then, a young man, the son of European immigrants, goes missing, and Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead up into the highest levels of Sydney society and down into its underworld. What is the young man's connection to an exclusive dance club and a high class auction house? When the people Billie questions about the young man start to turn up dead, Billie is thrown into the path of Detective Inspector Hank Cooper. Will he take her seriously or will he just get in her way? As the danger mounts and Billie realizes that much more than one young man's life is at stake, it becomes clear that though the war was won, it is far from over.
My Thoughts: I am not usually one to read historical fiction books, however, when offered to read this book by the publisher and after researching it, I decided to give it a try. What caught my eye about the book while doing my research on it, was that even though it was a historical fiction it was also somewhat up my alley with it being a mystery and suspense novel as well.
I thought the book itself was written well and it is easy to follow. The author uses a lot of detail when describing the scenes that are unfolding in the story along with the setting and characters. However, I did find that sometimes that the use of detail went too far and that it became unnecessary and more "fluff" to the story than actually contributing to it. There were times that I find myself skimming over these parts in order to get back to the cases at hand that Billie was investigating.
Tara Moss uses some German in the book and for the most part, she does a good job with integrating the English translation into the story itself. Their are a few instances though where their is no translation and you either have to look up what was said or try to infer it from the story.
There is a ton of action in the story that keeps it moving at a consistent and fast pace. There is a lot of information regarding WWII and it is very clear that Tara Moss took her time in doing research for the book. According to the Acknowledgements at the back of the book, Tara Moss did two years of research for the book.
The characters are relatable for the time period that the story takes place in, post WWII. I really liked Billie and her assistant Sam. I was a little disappointed by the way the story ended around Billie and Jack as it felt unfinished.
Rating: 3 out of 5 because I found myself skimming over quite a bit throughout the entire book. I really liked the ending and I felt that it wrapped up the two cases that Billie had been working on. I did, however, feel that Billie and Jack's story was left unfinished and I also am left wondering what came of Moretti and his involvement. If you are a fan of historical fiction, than this is a book that I think you would most likely enjoy and would recommend picking up for your next book.
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About the Author: Tara Moss is an internationally bestselling author, human rights activist, documentary host, and model. Her crime novels have been published in nineteen countries and thirteen languages, and her memoir, The Fictional Woman, was a #1 international bestseller. She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has received the Edna Ryan Award for significant contributions to feminist debate and for speaking out for women and children, and in 2017 she was recognized as one of the Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life.
Many thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for this advance readers copy. This is my honest opinion.
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