Beware This Boy: A Detective Inspector Tom Tyler Mystery

Jennings's second historical set in WWII-era England and starring Det. Insp. Tom Tyler (after 2011's Season of Darkness) improves on its predecessor while staking a better claim for the series' longevity. In 1940, Tyler is stationed in the small community of Whitchurch when he gets a call from Special Branch. An explosion has rocked a munitions factory in Birmingham, one of the inspector's previous posts, and Special Branch spymaster Mr. Grey wants to know if it was accidental or not. To answer this question, Tyler must first sort through a tangle of competing factions, from Irish, Welsh, and Scottish nationalists, to the substantial Communist faction within organized labor. Jennings brings a colorful sense of detail to her evocation of Britain during the Blitz, and if the plotting isn't of the same high caliber as Anthony Horowitz's Foyle's War teleplays, it gets the job done well enough to make the prospect of a third book appealing. (Nov.)