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Published Jun 2019
368 pages
Genre: Mysteries
Publication Information
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.
Mrs. Braithwaite, self-appointed queen of her English village, finds herself dethroned, despised, and dismissed following her husband's selfish divorce petition. Never deterred, the threat of a family secret being revealed sets her hot-foot to London to find the only person she has left—her clever daughter Betty, who took work there at the first rumbles of war.
But when she arrives, Betty's landlord, the timid Mr. Norris, informs her that Betty hasn't been home in days--with the chaos of the bombs, there's no telling what might have befallen her. Aghast, Mrs. Braithwaite sets her bullish determination to the task of finding her only daughter.
Storming into the London Blitz, Mrs. Braithwaite drags the reluctant Mr. Norris along as an unwitting sidekick as they piece together Betty's unexpectedly chaotic life. As she is thrown into the midst of danger and death, Mrs. Braithwaite is forced to rethink her old-fashioned notions of status, class, and reputation, and to reconsider the question that's been puzzling her since her world overturned: How do you measure the success of your life?
Readers will be charmed by the unforgettable Mrs. Braithwaite and her plucky, ruthless optimism, and find in The Spies of Shilling Lane a novel with surprising twists and turns, quiet humor, and a poignant examination of mothers and daughters and the secrets we keep.
"With its eccentric, believable characters and plot of home front intrigue, this delightful drama will appeal to fans of Martha Hall Kelly." - Publishers Weekly
"Some of the minor characters are less-than-fully fleshed out, and the last part of the story feels superficial. The very end of the book leaves the door open to a possible sequel, and readers will want to know what Mrs. Braithwaite and Mr. Norris will get up to next. A cozy, entertaining historical spy story." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Spies of Shilling Lane was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennifer Ryan is the author of national bestseller The Chilbury Ladies' Choir and The Spies of Shilling Lane. Before she began writing, she was a nonfiction book editor with a passion for the Second World War. Her books are based on her grandmother's stories from this era.
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