Intriguing story of a woman who is hired as a typist to really do undercover work for Britain. She is assigned to help another undercover investigator to find out who is leaking info to the Germans.

A Traitor in Whitehall is a historical mystery set during WWII in England. There’s a traitor passing secrets out of Churchhill’s war rooms. Working in a munitions factory, Evelyne Redfern is recruited my a friend of her general father’s to infiltrate the typing pool of Whitehall and report back to him. Just a few days in as a secretary, Evelyne finds the murdered body of a coworker. Patronized by the police, Evelyne begins investigating on her own before inserting herself into David Poole’s investigation for the Prime Minister. Whitehall is full of secrets and blackmail where the fate of the war rests on finding a killer. Evelyne is a strong willed, brilliant amateur sleuth that is ahead of her time. David is mysterious and interesting enough to keep the chemistry flowing. Hopefully this is just the first mystery in a long series. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

This is the perfect cozy, historical fiction book! Set during the blitz in London high society gone wrong girl that has gone underground to help the allied efforts. Evelyn is a true heroine and wickedly smart, I hope to see more of her.

The first in a new series by the author of The Last Dance of the Debutante, featuring MCs Evelyne Redfern and David Poole from Churchill's cabinet war rooms, who hunt a killer and a mole selling British secrets to the enemy. Histfic mystery fans will rejoice!

Do you love mystery? Do you love historical fiction? This is the perfect book for you.

I had no idea what to expect when St. Martin’s Press gave me the opportunity to read A Traitor in Whitehall, and what I got was a bingeable mystery set in WWII London during the blitz. From the very first pages, I was drawn into the story and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. There were a few moments when I thought I’d solved the mystery, but was pleasantly surprised that it was much more complicated than I imagined.

Read if you love:
▪️murder mysteries
▪️historical fiction set in WWII
▪️quick-paced sleuthing
▪️short chapters
▪️great characters

This was truly a fun read. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity. All opinions in this review are my own.

I enjoyed this one but had a hard time getting into it. I appreciate WWII fiction that takes a different angle on things and once I got over my initial slump, I enjoyed this mystery! I know that Julia Kelly is talented in her own right but it definitely gave me Ariel Lawhon/Kate Quinn vibes.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance digital copy of A Traitor in Whitehall. Evelyn Redfern loves a good mystery novel and all her reading proves useful when she finds herself in the middle of a real murder mystery. She allows no one to underestimate her intelligence as she investigates a murder and possible treasonous activities in London during WWII. Julia Kelly’s novel is an engaging read. I hope to see more novels featuring these characters.

A traitor in Whitehall by Julia Kelly is an enjoyable almost cozy historical murder mystery. While pacing was a bit skewed in the first third the engaging over all plot and interesting characters more than Carrie’s me through . Fans of of back ground intrigue in their murder mysteries have come to the right place .

This was super good. Enjoyed the story. Especially after a visit to the Churchill war rooms, because I could picture it so well.

Evelyne Redfern is a young woman, living and working in WWII London. She takes up a job in Churchill's underground Cabinet War Rooms (CWR), tasked with working the typist pool, but also being on the lookout for a mole within the CWR. However early on in her first week on the job, she discovers the murder of one of her fellow typists, Jean Plinkton, and quickly finds herself involved in the investigation into both the mole and Jean's murder.

Evelyne is a lover of mystery novels but Britain's great authors, and this book is cleverly styled as a mystery in the same vein. Evelyne methodically works her way through her list of suspects and uses the evidence discovered on Jean's body and in her bunk at the CWR to discover the murderer, with the assistance of David Poole, who is also on the case of the mole.

This is the first book I've read by Julia Kelly, and also the first WWII novel I've read set in the CWR. That said, the setting of the CWR is only used as a locked room aspect, and not fully fleshed out. I enjoyed Kelly's writing, and the development of Evelyne as a character. I was also very satisfied with the ending and how Evelyne and David tied everything together, with the promise of future investigations for them together.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

I have enjoyed Julia Kelly's other books, but not this one. I read to the 50% mark, and I just wasn't interested enough to keep going. I don't like giving a bad review, but I also want to be an honest reviewer.

A cozy and unpredictable mystery filled with a cast of characters who each have their own secrets, set in the Cabinet War Rooms during WW2. Evelyne is a strong and brave character, who does not do exactly as society expects her to and it was great to follow along her story. I've enjoyed the authors historical fiction and loved the addition of mystery in this book, hopefully this will not be the last mystery that Julia Kelly writes!

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the author, Julia Kelly for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a great start to a new series! I love historical fiction and this story was very intriguing. I share Evelyne’s need to have a book at all times.
Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed the main character & the story was okay overall but for a “who-dunnit” involving a murder and classified government/military secrets during WW2, the stakes never felt all that high.

I did really like the 1940s references, I did some light googling while reading sometimes and learned about people I had never even heard of before this book.

"A Traitor in Whitehall" is well worth reading. The story revolves around the murder of a typist (Jean Plinkton) working in the cabinet war rooms (an underground bunker under Whitehall where government ministers and staff met in secret and safety during WWII) and the search for a mole leaking sensitive information to the Germans. The author does a good job of portraying the sense of purpose and the chaos that would have existed, especially during the Blitz. The mysteries were good, with plenty of plausible suspects and motives for the murder of Jean, especially as more information about Jean's behavior was revealed. The mystery involves a coded message, and I thought it was creative how the author devised the code to work and how she devised the key to the code being discovered.

The main character, Evelyne Redfern, is an interesting and enjoyable character. I liked that she was assertive and knew her own worth, standing up for herself with David Poole, who would become her partner in the investigations, and with the Military Police investigating the murder, who did not appreciate her "interference" but also failed to make some of the connections and uncover some of the information that Evelyne did. I was very pleased that the book ended with the possibility of our lover of detective fiction turned amateur detective being involved in more investigations in the future.

A murder, a mole and high suspense in Churchill's War Rooms - what is there not to like about Julia Kelly's foray into mystery. This is not a fast paced thriller but a more comfortable who-done-it that was a very enjoyable read combining historical fiction with a cozy mystery. There are back stories that could still be explored and a future left wide open for the investigations of Evelyne Redfern and David Poole. Well done. Very enjoyable.
ATraitorInWhitehall#NetGalley#MinotaurBooks

Possibly my favorite read of the year! For fans of WWll Historical Women’s Fiction & Mystery, Julia Kelly has created a must read!

Evelyne Redfern is a strong and intelligent woman working in Churchill’s London underground war rooms (CWR) hired to help find a mole and ends up with a murder mystery to solve.

The historical facts, likable characters and storyline made this a most enjoyable and hard to put down read. Some might describe it as a cozy mystery with a solid plot, but it is much more than that!

I highly recommend reading A Traitor in Whitehall!

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for an eArc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Pub Date: 03 Oct 2023

Evelyne Redfern is serving her country by working in a London munitions factory in 1940 and really dislikes it. Rooming with her best friend Moira (an aspiring actress) both Evelyne and Moira are upper class girls who have learned to make their own livings after earning parental disapproval: (Moira) or lacking parental interest (Evelyne). Evelyne makes do however in her free time by reading any British mystery she can find and feels that she could actually solve mysteries if she had to.
Thus begins an engrossing new mystery that looks to be the beginning of a series. Evelyne bumps into a friend of her parents, Mr. Fletcher -- she last saw him when she was nine years old -- and he tells her that if she'd like to make a change in her work to come see him. The interview sends her into the British Civil Service as a typist in the newly created Cabinet War Rooms (CWR) which are all underground. Typists work 3 days on and 2 days off, staying in an underground bunk room while they are working and, like all those in the CWR, are sworn to secrecy about what goes on there.
Within the first week Evelyne comes across a dead body, and she is met with her first actual murder mystery. There has also apparently been a leak and some information is getting out to the Germans. Evelyne should probably let herself be interviewed by the Investigators and go meekly back to her typist job but of course she is not that sort of woman. This was a fun book to read and hopefully there will be a second book to follow.

I really wanted to like this historical novel. It takes place in World War II London, inside Winston Churchill’s underground cabinet war rooms (the CWR) just as Germany begins its bombing campaign known as “the Blitz.” What could be more potentially exciting? Unfortunately, despite its historic and dramatic setting, “A Traitor in Whitehall” is actually no more than a cozy mystery—a “whodunnit”—and not a very compelling one at that.

The novel begins well enough. Heroine Evelyne--a near-orphaned university graduate working a deathly dull job at a munitions factory--has just been hired by a family friend to work as a pool typist/stenographer at the CWR. Before she even has a chance to acclimate to her new surroundings and co-workers, she stumbles onto the body of another typist stabbed to death. Military police detectives quickly decide this to be no more than a crime of passion. But Evelyne suspects something more sinister. Highly independent and intrepid, and a lover of mysteries and detective fiction, she begins to investigate, ultimately joining forces with co-worker David Poole who has been assigned to catch a traitor “leaking” information to the Germans. So, the hunt is on for a murderer and a mole. Whether they are one and the same, or have any connection, is anyone’s guess.

It’s an interesting premise, but the resulting story seemed more a tepid soap opera than the “clever “Agatha Christie-esque mystery” promised on the cover.

For one thing, the stakes never seem very high. Yes, someone’s leaking information, but the quality of that information doesn’t seem all that vital. And yes, someone is murdered, but she’s so thoroughly disliked by all her co-workers that it’s a challenge to become immersed in who did it or why.

The range of suspects is large and includes a number of Evelyne’s fellow typists, none of whom we get to know very well and all of whom are difficult to keep straight.

There are few important inter-character relationships—and none to get really excited about.

Main character Evelyne, while clever and likable—maybe even admirable to some--often strains credulity. For example, it’s hard to believe that someone just beginning work as a typist in Mr. Churchill’s CWR would or even could become the de facto lead investigator into a murder on the premises, especially in a place where chains of command and doing what one is told and not acting outside the scope of one’s duty are necessities. Evelyne is repeatedly told to cease her investigation, and yet she persists.

Author Julia Kelly does not make the fullest or best use of either wartime London amidst “The Blitz” or Churchill’s underground complex. In fact, we barely see Churchill much less any of his more famous cabinet members such as Lord Beaverbrook or Anthony Eden. While we are told that the CWR produces blizzards of paper, that’s about all we learn about the place where some of the most momentous decisions of the war were made. And while there are scenes involving the bombings, and citizens taking shelter, almost no mention, if any, is made of the overriding threat faced by everyone: namely that the Germans may soon invade and occupy Great Britain.

Readers looking simply for a light, mildly entertaining mystery may well enjoy “A Traitor in Whitehall.” But those hoping for an exciting historical novel involving a legendary world leader attempting to save his nation from defeat and ruin—and a citizenry facing imminent occupation and withstanding all manner of dangers, hardships, and sacrifice--may wish to look elsewhere. Two and a half stars rounded up to three.

My thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for providing me with an electronic ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.

Julia Kelly's newest novel, A Traitor in Whitehall, is the first novel in a new mystery series, titled the Parisian Orphan series. There is a murder, treason, the Blitz, a suggestion of romance, humor, and a plucky English heroine. This series has a lot going for it, and I enjoyed it very much. The beginning of the novel after the novel starts off a but slowly, but that is to set up some very necessary background information about the heroine of this novel.

Evelyne Redfern is the Parisian Orphan of the book series. To solve a murder and expose the identity of a treasonous mole, she pairs up with a handsome partner, David Poole. A lifetime spent reading English mysteries has seemingly prepared Miss Redfern to solve a murder. At first this seems like a routine cozy mystery, but A Traitor in Whitehall is far more than a cozy mystery. It is murder, espionage, and treason all in one enjoyable and fun-to-read novel. Redfern and Poole are cast as a new Nora and Nick Charles, with just enough humor to make the story even more interesting. I don't know if Kelly had in mind recreating the Charles team, minus Asta, but that is what she has accomplished.

A Traitor in Whitehall is both serious and humorous. I can already imagine the BBC series based on this series of novels, since the end of the novel suggests a series in the making. As Poole keeping reminding Miss Redfern, American mysteries are much more serious and far less fun than English mysteries. Kelly makes it clear that Poole is wrong.

Thank you to the author and to St Martins Press for this ARC, in exchange for my honest review. Obviously, I enjoyed this movable and look forward to subsequent books in this series. Thank you also to NetGalley for helping me connect to so many new and enjoyable authors.