AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER! 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 … 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.
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Just what I needed today—a blast of the escapist past. Sydney in 1946, damaged veterans, bad guys, car chases, mysteries, and a female PI up for the fight.
A cracking thriller, with a marvelous, strong, flamboyant heroine.
Enough page-turning suspense to keep you up reading far later than you intended!
A terrific read!
Brilliantly atmospheric and completely immersive—this stylishly fierce adventure into post-war darkness will hold you captive on every page. The amazing Tara Moss has created a cinematic and important feminist noir—dark as midnight velvet and tough as steel. Do not miss this!
In Billie Walker, Moss has conjured up one kick-ass 1940s heroine: a tough-talking, glamorous feminist who’s as adept with a pistol as she is on the dance floor, haunted by a tragic past, and unafraid to take on the darkest of foes. An artful, original take on noir suspense that resonates in today’s times.
Tara Moss’s The War Widow is an excellent novel and an even better springboard for its crackerjack heroine: the indomitable Billie Walker. Like a harder-boiled Phryne Fisher meets Martha Gellhorn, Billie is the best kind of heroine: fun, flawed, smart, feminist, and feisty. Even down the darkest of paths—including but not limited to Nazi war profiteers, shady mobsters, cops on the take, and more—Billie is a beacon of light, never losing her sense of justice, or her enjoyment in life (and a good coupe of champagne!). Honestly, I’d follow Billie anywhere.
Billie Walker is the type of heroine I’d love to befriend: resourceful, clever, adventurous, and a true fashionista. With a gripping plot and the perfect dose of history and intrigue, The War Widow has all the elements of a great page-turner.
Moss’s ultra-cool prose and whip-smart plotting pull you along at cracking pace until suddenly you look up and realize with a gulp how deep you’ve gone and how very dark it is down there.
I’ve read books by this author before, but I think this one would have to be my favourite. The first in the Billie Walker series, I enjoyed stepping into Sydney and the Blue Mountains during 1946. It is well researched and covers various social issues of the time, including the treatment of Aboriginal Australians. This brings a unique perspective to the crime genre and is handled with great sensitivity.
I had the audio version* and was pleasantly surprised to hear mention of the Trocadero, a popular dance hall for many years, and one my mother would regularly visit during her youth.
With a feisty, independent heroine and an intriguing cast of characters, I look forward to the next book in the series.
*My copy was Dead Man Switch.
OMG, I loved this book! A wonderful tale of a female private eye (or private inquirer, as they call it) in Australia just after the war has ended in 1946. A journalist during the War, Billie Walker finds that peacetime Australia is a challenging place for a woman, as the jobs they held while the men were fighting are no longer considered suitable for women. Billie’s late father was a PI, and she has taken over his business. As a woman its a struggle to build clientele, but Billie perseveres and finally gets a case that’s not documenting a philandering husband. A woman comes to her for help in finding her teenage son who has disappeared. The search to find him will take Billie into the world of those who profited from the Nazi spoils of war taken from their victims: artwork, jewelry, gold teeth and so on. Oh yes, and Billie has to deal with her mother the Baroness and the fact of her missing husband.
This book was a great read; a wonderful protagonist, with intelligent and courageous and spunky; a challenging mystery to solve; great writing, an interesting locale and time, this book has it all! And, it’s the first in a series, so there should be more to come!
This is a post WW2 Story set in Australia. Billie is the main character, she as just returned from Europe after working there as a reporter and is now running a private investigation company.
This is a lady who jumped on the Feminist Train before it even existed. Billie is a very strong character, well spoken and very talented at what she does. Her main focus is a young man who was reported missing by his mother.
The journey to find out what happened to him takes many twists and turns and at times becomes quite dark.
Generally a well written book with well developed characters. I found it a bit too wordy in many spots. Sometimes a passage went on long enough that I had to reread it because I lost track of what was being said.
It is the first book of a trilogy. Great news for those who like series.
I really enjoyed this book in the Billie Walker series. The characters are well developed and the author has done a wonderful job of drawing you into their lives and making you care what is happening to them.
Billie Walker is a sassy lady private investigator and I look forward to future adventures with her. I loved the setting in Australia and the mystery and excitement that flowed through the pages. You never knew what would happen next to Billie.
Sam Baker, her assistant, was a great compliment to her personality. I liked his willingness to do the most mundane of tasks to the extremely dangerous assignments.
What a wonderful introduction to Billie and Sam and many of the characters who appear as you flip quickly through the pages and get lost in the mystery.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own
historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, private-investigators****
Investigator Billie Walker takes over her late father’s private inquiry agency in Sydney after returning from her wartime job as a reporter in Paris in 1946 without her missing and presumed dead husband. A distraught mother wants Billie to find her missing teenage son. Along with her trusty assistant Sam they start looking into the boy’s last known movements. Then the danger becomes much too threatening and personal.
The story is told in flashbacks and switchbacks, not my favorite format. But it well told. This is best read in long stretches to avoid continuity issues.
I requested and reviewed a free ebook copy from PENGUIN GROUP Dutton via NetGalley.
Billie Walker spent the war years in Europe reporting on the Nazis and the war. With her return to “civilian” life, she was expected to give up her job to the men returning from the war. Her newspaper expected her to report on womanly things, like social events, weddings, and cake baking. After having been at the heart of the war, there was no chance she could ever accept the assignments now being offered to her. When she got news that her father was ill, she returned to her home country of Australia, but arrived too late. Instead of returning to Europe, she reopens her late father’s private investigation business. She struggles to make ends meet when it appears no one wants to hire a woman PI in post-war Australia. Then a woman walks into her office and her life will never be the same.
This is the first in the Billie Walker Mystery series, and it’s a good one. Moss has written a well-researched, complex mystery. Billie Walker is a strong multifaceted character trying to make it in a man’s world. The storyline develops slowly as the reader follows Walker’s initial investigation of the son of the woman who hired her.
If you like your mysteries with a strong main character in an interesting setting with believable twists and turns, then this is the book for you. An added bonus to this series starter is that, by the end of the book, you’ll find yourself looking forward to the book two in the series.
My thanks to Dutton and Edelweiss for an eARC.