Summary from cover: From the bestselling author of The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir comes a thrilling new WWII story about a village busybody—the mighty Mrs. Braithwaite—who resolves to find, and then rescue, her missing daughter
The Spies of Shilling Lane is set in London during WWII. The story focuses on Mrs. Braithwaite, who discovers her daughter missing, and goes on a quest of her own to find Betty. Mrs. Braithwaite puts her gossipy, busy-body skills to the test and elicits the help of Mr. Norris, Betty’s landlord to search London amidst bombings and air raids.
The characters and setting make this novel worth reading. While war is always a hard topic to dive into without totally being depressing, Mrs. Braithwaite and Mr. Norris make an interesting duo. Both struggle with living their lives in a small box, always doing the same thing, never really changing. They both let life happen to them, instead of living in the moment. Mr. Norris puts aside fear to help the brash and bold Mrs. Braithwaite track down unsavory people to find out what happened to Betty. Mrs. Braithwaite realizes that her bossy ways and lack of love tainted her life. She softens, while Mr. Norris becomes quite bold in their pursuits.
I enjoyed this story. The suspense element of amateur sleuths tracking down Betty was quite entertaining, and I loved characters that step up and realize who they are when put to the test. Lots of plot twists and run-ins with spies make this an intriguing novel.
I received an ebook review copy of this book through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.