The Chinese Shawl by Patricia Wentworth: A Miss Silver Mystery

If one has to be an orphan, it is helpful to be an heiress, however modest, and be reasonably attractive. Laura Fane has “white skin, dark hair, and the grey-green eyes which were her real beauty.” She lost her parents when she was just five, after her father’s decision to jilt his cousin Agnes when he met and fell for Laura’s mother caused a family rift. Now 21, she has come to London to meet with a lawyer about her inheritance. She currently receives £400/year, mostly from renting her father’s home, the Priory, to her Cousin Agnes, and she works as a secretary at a convalescent home for soldiers.

Six Degrees of Separation – from Founding Mothers to The Little Wartime Library

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where it ends up. This month Kate suggested we start with our book group’s current selection, which for me is Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts (2004). My friend Carrie chose this with the recent 250th celebration in mind, and she made our meeting very festive with Chicken Pot Pie as the entrée and red, white, and blue (or purple) gelato and little bags of red, white, and blue Hershey’s Kisses.

“Change Your Life for €1,” the headline had read . . .

When she was at her lowest emotionally, Skye saw a competition to win a cottage in Greece for one euro, and entered. How she won and how the paperwork was completed quickly and without publicity requires some suspension of disbelief but, why not, every book needs a plot, and apparently this is an actual thing:

Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson

Frances Field knows she was lucky to be taken in by an uncle and aunt when she was orphaned at three but whatever she owes them has been amply repaid – she has acted as housekeeper and slaved for her indolent aunt since her late teens, without payment or time off. When the war begins she is eager to do her bit but is forced to go on catering to her aunt’s every demand until a bomb lands near their home, breaking most of the windows in Wintringham Square. 

And Both Were Young by Madeleine L'Engle

Set in the late 1940s, Madeleine L’Engle’s first book for young people is a boarding school story about an American teen, still recovering from the loss of her mother, and how a friendship with a serious French boy with demons of his own brings both solace. Philippa Hunter, known as Flip, had hoped to travel with her artist father – he is working on illustrations for a book about lost children throughout Europe and Asia, including those from WWII. Instead, his possessive girlfriend, Mrs. Jackman, has arranged for her to attend a boarding school in Switzerland.

December 2025 Reading

You’ll have to wait a little longer for my Best of 2025 list (I'm having a hard time narrowing it to ten) but here is my December reading.  I think my favorite was the newest installment of the Thursday Murder Club.  Osman's gift for conveying what his characters are thinking is impressive.  That is why I think a voiceover would have made the Netflix adaptation even stronger (also it should have been a multi-part series).

Suspense

The Charity Shop Detective Agency by Peter Boland (2022). Several months ago, I started listening to this mystery about three friends who volunteer at a charity shop somewhere near Dorset. They are upset when a favorite client is murdered and decide to (somewhat ineptly) help the police with their investigation. When my library canceled its Hoopla subscription, I was left stranded mid-story and it took quite a while to find a print copy from ILL. Probably not worth the effort but I hate not finishing a book.

The Star and the Shamrock by Jean Grainger - a final WWII novel for the year

In the first book of this WWII trilogy, a desperate mother in 1939 Berlin sends her children to what she hopes is safety in Britain. Ariella Bannon is a German Jew, married to Peter, a Catholic who was arrested five months ago for defending an old lady from Nazi thugs. She is afraid her husband is dead and is worried for her children: Liesl (10) and Erich (7). There is a chance to get them out of Berlin: a humanitarian effort, Kindertransport, is rescuing children from Nazi-controlled territory and bringing them to Britain. 

WWW Wednesday - December 3

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett, for Dean Street December

Lively and attractive Judy Rest has given up nursing but is still determined to do her bit for the war in this WWII mystery by Susan Scarlett, aka Noel Streatfeild. Judy is heading to the country to work at a munitions factory, and has a meet cute on the train when a studious-looking young man obligingly crawls about on the floor retrieving the lipstick she dropped. 

Searching for Shona by Margaret J. Anderson, a WWII evacuation story

Marjorie Malcolm-Scott leads a lonely but privileged existence in Edinburgh, living with her Uncle Fergus, who has been gone for months (war work?) and his disagreeable housekeeper, Mrs. Kilpatrick. Sometimes when she is sent outdoors to play, she goes to the local park and observes the rough and tumble orphans from St. Anne’s. 

The House at Mermaid's Cove by Lindsay Jayne Ashford - a WWII historical set in Cornwall

Sometimes a book is so annoying one cannot sit back and enjoy the setting, even when it turns out to have been inspired by a place one has visited. I don’t think my friend Cath recommended this historical novel set in 1943 Cornwall but I wish she had read it so we could critique it together. The heroine, Alice, is an Irish nun, sent back in disgrace from the Belgian Congo because she became too attached to orphaned twins whose lives she saved. I suppose that is plausible but surely her superior, Sister Clare, knew that the war made traveling dangerous? So, surprise, Alice’s ship to Ireland is torpedoed in the English Channel and she washes up on shore where she is found by a TDS*.

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen

Ellie Endicott is stunned when her husband of 30 years tells her he wants a divorce to marry a “smart, pleasant,” much younger colleague. Once she has recovered from her shock and humiliation, she admits – to herself, at least – that she didn’t love him. As Ellie wonders what is next for her, Mavis, her cleaning lady, persuades her to consult a solicitor:

Dear Miss Lake by AJ Pearce: a WWII story

In the fourth – and equally delightful as its predecessors – book about Emmy Lake, it is 1944, the war seems endless, and even the upbeat staff of Woman’s Friend magazine are exhausted by the need for nonstop positive messaging:

Strangers in Time by David Baldacci - a WWII Novel

With a title like this, I was expecting time travel but, in fact, this is a historical novel set during WWII that brings together three individuals into a found family. It is London 1944, and Molly, 15, has lived in the country as an evacuee for five years and is finally returning home. She is worried that she hasn’t heard directly from her mother for years and, with no warning, her father has stopped paying a stipend to the family that housed her. When Molly reaches her house, appalled by the devastation she finds in London, only the housekeeper is there to greet her.

The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris by Evie Woods - Paris in July

After years of nursing her mother through a final illness in Dublin, Edie Lane realizes she needs to challenge herself by doing something different. Searching online, she finds a job as the Assistant Manager of a bakery in Paris, which seems perfect – her parents had honeymooned in Paris and always talked about visiting as a family and her father is a pastry chef. But when Edie reaches La Boulangerie sur la Rue De Compiègne in Paris, she learns her mistake: her new employer is La Boulangerie sur la Rue de Paris in Compiègne, an hour north of Paris!

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan – a WWII historical novel from my 20 Books of Summer

Unexpected friendships and a cooking contest bring together four women in an English village during WWII in this enjoyable historical novel. The story begins with in 1942 with Audrey Landon, a widowed mother of three boys whose husband was shot down by the Germans.

Desperate not to lose their home, Audrey has eking out her pension with baking for the neighborhood, as well as humbling herself by asking for a loan from her affluent but unsympathetic sister and brother-in-law.

The Heart Speaks Many Ways by Madeleine A. Polland – Reading Ireland Month 2025

In this coming of age story, with an admittedly sappy title, a lovely young woman learns to have confidence in herself and her decision-making rather than reacting to stronger personalities or tragedy.

Emily McRoss has been living in Spain for two years, being “finished” with family friends, Don Rafael and Dona Serafina, and their daughter Remedios, her own age. In the background of the relaxed life of the upper classes in Andalusia there is increasing unrest that will result in civil war.

The Denehurst Secret Service by Gwendoline Courtney

A school story that contains a mystery and is also an evacuation story – who could ask for anything more, as my friend Fred Astaire would say . . .

Mrs. Sherbourne has news for her two teenage daughters, Elaine and Moira. She is sending them to Denehurst, a boarding school in Cornwall, because London in war time is dangerous and their father needs to concentrate on his Foreign Office work. The girls are mildly indignant because they want to do their bit but cheer up when their cousin, Captain Deryk Holroyd, says he might need their help from school. He asks them to conceal their fluency in German, where the family spent three years.

Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans

For those of us who read a lot of WWII historical fiction, it is a natural progression to contemplate what happened after the war ended. Perhaps this is why I loved the television show Homefront, set in a Midwest town where everyone is excited to welcome back their menfolk but do not realize how their lives will be affected, especially women who worked outside the home doing war work but are now displaced in favor of the men. 

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

In this historical novel, two determined teen siblings play a role in winning the war for the Allies.  Everyone tells fourteen-year-old Lizzie Novis that her mother was killed in a bombing but she refuses to believe it. Now that Britain is at war with Germany, her American grandmother wants Lizzie to come to Cleveland for the duration but Lizzie escapes from the ship and heads back to London to find her older brother, Jakob.