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. 

He already works at the factory (secret and dangerous experiments on explosives) and cautiously warns Judy about the house where she will be staying. Judy listens with interest but is determined to make up her own mind. She notes that her new acquaintance is the Honorable Nicholas Parsons but takes it in stride.

Judy decides wryly that her new (albeit temporary) home is “originally Elizabethan . . . but repaired or brought up to date somewhere about the region of George the First.” Its inhabitants include old Mrs. Former, whose husband recently died; Miss Rose, her sweet but twittery daughter; and dour Clara, who married Mrs. Former’s only grandson and has a son of her own:

By the drawing-room window in an armchair sat a frail old lady knitting, and at her feet, snoring abominably, was a small black pug dog. There was nobody else in the room and Judy looked resignedly at the dog. “I might have known it,” she thought; “this is just the kind of house to raise a girl’s hopes by calling their dog Mr. Jones.”

Judy becomes genuinely fond of old Mrs. Former and her daughter but does not get along with Clara, who seems to resent Judy’s medical background and keeps suggesting she move elsewhere. As if Judy didn’t have enough to worry about as she adjusts to the hard work, noise, and long hours of the factory:

The patch from one o’clock to half-past three, when the tea-wagon came round, Judy found intolerable. Her head ached from the noise, her feet ached from standing, and her hands ached from gripping the capstan handle. Her fellow workers were as kind as they could be, but each one had to work hard and each one was tired. During the afternoon her lathe jammed and the setter was sent for. He repaired it for ten exquisite minutes while Judy sat in a heap on a box.

The reader feels how tired Judy is and how amazed she is that loud music (a) can be heard over the din and (b) actually helps her and the other women mask their weariness and be productive. It impressed me how organized everything was: a job was found for Judy when her hospital closed, a billet was located for her, a taxi picked her up at the train station, lunch is lavish (meat, two vegetables, pudding and tea for one and four-pence), more tea at 3:30, and then home to the Formers who have her ration book and provide dinner and breakfast. The idea of being forced to take in and feed boarders, even to support the war effort, seems so invasive. However, I guess I’d rather host a munitions worker than an evacuated child.  But don't count on me to queue at the shops and conjure up dinner every night!

I loved this glimpse of wartime England. There are so many (too many?) books about intrepid women parachuting into Occupied France and a few (not enough?) about puzzle-loving women secretly working at Bletchley Park and it was refreshing to read a WWII novel about an ordinary person working in a factory. I wondered what they were making with these lathes - well, WWII munitions factories produced a wide variety of ordnance, including rifle and machine gun cartridges, artillery shells, bombs, and rocket propellants. There are no spiteful coworkers, although there’s a lot of gossip about Judy and Nick, but there is a murder – in fact, more than one. Trouble brings Judy and Nick (an unconventional hero) together, and they do have a mystery or two to solve. Scarlett was more ruthless than I expected in killing off her characters but her style is unmistakable and just as appealing as in the contemporary romances or juvenile fiction.

This is my thirty-second book for the Cloak and Dagger Challenge and I also read it for Dean Street December, hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home.  I am so appreciative of Dean Street republishing these twelve books by Susan Scarlett, which I never would have read otherwise. I have also reviewed Clothes-Pegs, Love in a Mist, and Babbacombe’s, as well as several by Streatfeild.

Title: Murder While You Work
Author: Susan Scarlett
Publication: Dean Street Press, e-book, 2022 (originally published in 1944)
Genre: Mystery/Romance
Source: Library/Hoopla