“This Side of Murder” - Anna Lee Huber

(Verity Kent book 1)

“The war might be over, but it still echoed through our lives like an endless roll of thunder.”

📝 tl;dr: this is a new series to me, and it is along the same lines as the Maisie Dobbs books. I quite like this heroine, and I’ll definitely follow her adventures in the subsequent novels.

📝 The Great War is over. Verity Kent is a compelling young, WWI widow who married hastily during the war. She has since been let go from her wartime employment and she must come to terms with the loss of her husband, Sidney, and the loss of a sense of purpose. Her present means of coping are to drown her sorrows in revelry. However, she is soon jolted out of this coping mechanism by a cryptic letter that casts aspersions on her late husband’s wartime conduct. Additionally, the writer knows of Verity’s own top secret wartime employment with the Secret Service; a fact that even Sidney did not know. Determined to discover the truth about her husband, Verity joins a weekend party at an isolated mansion with Sidney’s wartime mates.

📝 It’s my favorite kind of whodunit set up: a number of guests at an isolated country mansion. Who amongst them is the killer? There are 2 mysteries at play in TSOM: one lingers from the Great War, and the other, playing out in real, deadly time. 

📝 Elements of treason, desertion, espionage, and shell shock permeate the narrative. The mystery was tight and unravelled in an enjoyable read. Most of all, I really liked the character development of Verity; she’s likable and quick-witted. Also, the WWI-era fashion details are a treat! Where Maisie is more of a brooder, there is a lightness to Verity that is fun to read.

📝 The Lonely Soldier columns are an interesting WWI-era factoid referenced in this novel. Similar to the White Feather movement we learn about in “Birds of a Feather” (Maisie Dobbs 2), these newspaper columns play a significant role in this novel. It’s an interesting insight into the life of the times - lonely soldiers would write notes in these columns, and women at home would select ones that appealed to them and respond. This could turn into a wartime correspondence to lift the soldier’s spirits, and in some cases could turn into a romance as well.