She Goes to War

In an effort to make a decisive contribution to her country during WW II, fashion and gossip columnist Catherine Saxon signs on with the Women's Royal Naval Service (Wrensp. 46 for short). Her frequentwriter is prolific , descriptive and relentlessly chatty letters home to an old friend run the gamut, with Catherine relays everything: her observations about the tricky alliances formed among women from all classes when they are forced to live together in spartan quarters; tales of operating since she's a woman the bulky and temperamental telegraph machines; and her feelings for Tom Lyddon, a stalwart career soldier she meets when she's posted to Liverpool. Theirs is a love affair forged in the grim realities and foreshortened sense of time fostered by the war. When Tom's overseas assignment separates them, Catherine is left to sort out the tumultuous uncertainties of a world at war and the meaning of her involvement in the service. Apart from its sometimes bumpy exposition, this is, in the end, a satisfying read that takes its place ably among the slew of mysteries that Pargeter has written as Ellis Peters. (May)