352 pages

4 stars

Justine is a factory worker at a manufacturing plant in New Orleans that makes ships and airplanes during WWII. While her line work is essentially boring, she feels satisfaction in helping to build the machinery to protect the “boys” fighting and aid them in putting an end to the horrible war.

She had an unusual childhood. Her parents were both physicists, so she was taught all kinds of “unfeminine” things, like welding, auto repair and quantum mechanics. (How wonderful this would have been!)

She notices that there are too many things going wrong at the factory. Too many accidents, too many defective parts. She vows to get to the bottom of the apparent sabotage. She fears that perhaps there are German spies at the plant.

Justine meets a new friend who teaches her how to dance and about relationships with men. She is grateful to her new friend. Justine is friendly and outgoing. She’s just a little unworldly.

A couple of interesting characters show up in this novel too. Mudcat and Fritz. Their motives and intentions seem to be a little fuzzy. The book gives little hints and vignettes to share what Mudcat and Fritz are thinking and planning. Justine is being watched. She is being followed.

This is a very well written and plotted book. It is interesting and I found the technical descriptions fascinating. I still don’t understand some of them, but I liked reading about them. Watching Justine puzzle out the cipher held my attention, too. This book is very readable. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading another of Ms. Evans’ WWII adventures, as well as her Faye Longchamp novels.

I want to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for forwarding to me a copy of this very good book for me to read, enjoy and review. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

During the height of World War II, factory worker Justine Byrne seems to spend all her time at her New Orleans factory welding pieces of machinery back on after they keep falling off. She’s not even sure exactly what the factory produces, but it seems to be vital to the allies. Could there be a German sympathizer hiding among the workers? Trusting no one, Justine uses her analytical mind to try to uncover the truth and keep her factory, and her country, safe. This is an interesting change for Evans, who has long written her Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries, but it’s a pleasant and entertaining surprise