Death in a Blackout

In 1940, Billie Harkness, the protagonist of this so-so series launch set in England from Ellicott (the Beryl and Edwina mysteries), tries to join the war effort after her clergyman father becomes a German POW, but her controlling mother, Martha, who wants her to adhere to traditional domestic roles, prevents her from doing so. Martha’s subsequent death in a hit-and-run accident prompts Billie to leave her small village of Barton St. Giles for the city of Hull, where she’s been invited to live by a cousin she’s never met. The move comes with a radical life change as well. After Billie comes across a dead woman in a café who was ostensibly killed in an air raid, her attempts to identify the body lead her to accept an offer to join Hull’s new women’s police constabulary unit. That position enables her to pursue her suspicions of foul play. The whodunit doesn’t compel, and while Billie engenders sympathy, she doesn’t leave much of an impression. The concept—probing a homicide amid the chaos of WWII—has been done plenty of times before and better. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)