In this post-World War II mystery, readers follow former OSS spy and aeronautics heiress Evelyn Bishop as she works as a private investigator in sunny Los Angeles. When the cheating husband she has been tailing is murdered and her former OSS (and something more) partner Nick Gallagher reappears in Los Angeles, everything changes and this assignment has much higher stakes than Evelyn thought. Having kept her OSS service secret from her father and only getting involved in the first place to find her brother, a POW in a Nazi camp, Evelyn must balance her personal and professional lives in this case and solve the murder that brought the war Evelyn and Nick fought back to Los Angeles. With a complex and capable heroine with a somewhat tragic backstory, this World War II historical fiction novel alternates between 1942 and 1948 and the OSS’s work in occupied France. Evelyn and Nick’s relationship is realistically complex, and the dual timelines really add to the complexity of their wartime relationship. With a complex plot and developed characters, this is a great World War II historical fiction novel for those who like mysteries and spy thrillers, and historical fiction fans will still love this novel’s ties to World War II and its capable OSS protagonists.

Under the Paper Moon by Shaina Steinberg

As I began to read, I felt I had stepped into a black and white “noir movie” with a Bogart-Bacall vibe. The book flips from 1948 back to 1942 chapter by chapter until the two timelines merge and the story continues. I have to admit that at first I had mixed feelings about the story but the more I read, the more I wanted to read. I had to know how it would end.

What I liked:
* Evelyn Bishop: wealthy, privileged, raised in Los Angeles, tomboy, lost her mother early, loves her family, is on a mission to find her POW brother when she joins the Office of Strategic Services, multi-lingual, lethal, intelligent, loves deeply, private investigator, adrift at the end of WWII
* Nick Gallagher: poor as a child, abusive parents, abandoned as a preteen, survived on the streets, grew up in Los Angeles, always dreamed of one day having loving home and family, in charge of the OSS team, talkative, loves deeply, made a decision that upset his life, adrift at the end of WWII
* Carl Santos: on Nick & Evelyn’s team, good friend, skilled, became a detective for LAPD when he left the army
* The plot, pacing, setting, mood, era, and writing of this story
* The glimpse into WWII behind enemy lines
* That I came to feel I knew the characters and could like them even with their flaws…well…most of them anyway
* That I understood and believed in the strength of the love Evelyn had for both men in her life and how she finally determined which man was her forever
* How all the threads came together and left me feeling okay at the end
* Having grown up in Los Angeles, I found myself enjoying revisiting places I had been
* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Drexler and his female colleague and the way they corrupted the people they did
* Thinking about how loving someone can sometimes make good people make bad choices

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

A captivating debut that is full of intrigue,romance, and historical suspense. I didn’t want to put it down!
Many thanks to Kensington and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Enthralling post WWII Thriller!

Evelyn Bishop is the daughter of a wealthy American aeronautics industrialist.
Evelyn is totally out of step and bored by the expectations her social strata has for women. When her brother Matthew, fighting in Europe, (pre the US’s entry into the war) is captured by the Nazi’s she can’t sit quietly at home.
Evelyn goes to London and ostensibly becomes a translator. Evelyn speaks five languages.
In reality she joins the Office of Strategic Services, a clandestine US organization and becomes an intelligent officer. She spent the war parachuting out of planes behind enemy lines, over France. Evelyn is always searching for any news of her brother Matthew’s whereabouts.
She works closely with Nick Gallagher, who’s the leader of the Intelligence Team Evelyn’s assigned to. The chemistry between them is volcanic. So it’s all the more shocking when something happens after Victory Day, something that ruptures their relationship.
Returning back stateside after the war Evelyn can’t settle down She becomes a detective. Her’s and her brother’s childhood friend James is there waiting for her. Evelyn is prevaricating about marriage though. Does she want that?
Nick returns back to the States, working with the LAPD, and of course drinking too much. When that fails he too becomes a detective, still climbing into the bottom of a cheap bottle of whiskey.
Now fate throws them together once more. It seems they’re both working on the same case, but for different parties.
What neither expects is the growing number of bodies strewn across their path and a dark mystery emerging, reaching back into their OSS days.
I loved the chemistry between Nick and Evelyn. Their repartee is often sharply laconic and understated. The contrast between their characters charges the pages in the best possible way.
The action moves between 1942 London and France, and 1948 Los Angeles, inserting the important back story into the now.
Parts verged on the predictable but that didn’t any anyway lesson my enjoyment.
A very readable thriller that smacks somewhat of Sam Spade. I must admit to seeing flashes of Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I loved it!

A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

It's an enjoyable historical mystery, a bit slow and very funny at times.
It's well written and entertaining. Problem is that a PI story in the 40s makes me think of Chandler or Hammet and this is more cozy adiacent than a noir/hard boiled story.
Recommended if you like light historical mystery
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I usually like historical fiction but this one just wasn't for me. I found the story a bit boring. I could picture it as a movie or TV show but the writing was a bit underwhelming. It was a quick read and you may have better luck!

Under the Paper Moon comes out next week on April 23, 2024 and you can purchase HERE.

She turned to James Hughes, sitting across from her. Tall and handsome, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes, he was almost too attractive for Evelyn.

She preferred men with imperfections. They were usually more interesting, having the burden of developing a personality, rather than relying upon their looks. James's one quirk was the way his hair curled at random, defying the gel he used to slick it down. She found it endearing and often longed to tuck it behind his ear.

I’d give this one 4.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed this post-WWII, LA-set mystery. Evelyn has returned from being an OSS agent in the war to being a private investigator in LA after the war. Her most recent case throws her into murder, treason, and a run-in with a lover who betrayed her. The events move quickly and the characters have great chemistry and snappy dialogue. The only thing that occasionally detracted was some shifting narration, but this was a really minor point in an excellent book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. All views are entirely my own.

LA Noir light. Nick and Evelyn find themselves working together in post-WWII Los Angeles, This isn't particularly complex and while it's not a cozy, it's also not in the same realm of historical fiction as Kate Quinn etc. That said, while there are some laughable and cringy lines, I liked that Evelyn is pretty much the lead character and the atmospherics. There are bad guys and there's an implausible, well, no spoilers, Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I'd be interested in another outing with these two.

Under the Paper Moon, by Shaina Steinberg, is fast-moving novel of two intelligence agents who served together during WWII. Set in L.A. after the war, with wartime flashbacks, it reads like the film I hope it becomes. Evelyn is smart, talented and an accomplished heroine. If you are of a certain age, you might imagine Katherine Hepburn cast in the role. If you are younger, maybe Jessica Chastain or Jennifer Lawrence? Heavily layered with physical action, this plot mixes a love triangle, espionage, and mystery that kept me guessing until the very end. Amidst all those elements, it raises questions of love, duty, loyalty and to whom each is owed. It was an enjoyable and quick read with moments of introspection as I contemplated those questions. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the opportunity to read a digital ARC. Publication date is April 23, 2024.

Set in LA several years after the end of WWII this mystery has a very film noir feel to it. In addition to the mystery in LA there are flashbacks to the main characters' work as spies during the war.

The mystery itself and the flashbacks are all quite interesting but everything is overshadowed by a love triangle.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kensington Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you, Kensington Books.

Sometimes, a book hits just right. I could not put this book down. Written in film noir style, Evelyn and Nick race to solve the case of a murdered man. There is the tension of their past in the OSS. There is a love triangle and betrayal. There is the glamorous setting of 1940s Los Angeles. Danger is always around the corner. I could easily see this book as a movie - in black and white with great dialogue and music.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC.

This film noir inspired mystery features two former OSS spies who find themselves working together again in Los Angeles. Evelyn was a great leading lady, but I felt that Nick was a little too hard-boiled for my taste. The plot was intriguing and the unraveling mystery kept me turning pages, but the action was very much dialog-driven.

This would be a good choice for someone interested in film-noir, Raymond Chandler-esque mysteries featuring a strong female lead.

Novels focused on the internal and external experiences of those who fought in World War II are everywhere these days. Quite a few books also explore how women participated in the war and what drove them to endanger their lives in their nation’s service at a time when that was by no means expected of them. What sets “Under the Paper Moon” apart is that it takes place a few years after and at a considerable distance from the war itself—Los Angeles in 1948. Even so, the story is inconceivable without the six years of all-encompassing conflict so recently ended. People’s reasons for joining—or not joining—the fight, as well as the psychological trauma they experienced and the brutal memories they brought back, infuse every aspect of the story, reminding us that the scars of war require a long time to heal.

Evelyn Bishop, the central character of the novel, has no obvious reason to leave her privileged home in Los Angeles to join the OSS and parachute into France on intelligence-gathering missions. Yet she does, at first to find her brother, Matthew, but then because the work challenges and rewards her in ways she could not have imagined as a rich debutante. Her romantic relationship with her colleague Nick Gallagher ends badly, but she returns home and puts him out of her mind, reuniting with her childhood sweetheart. Or so she thinks, until the murder of one of her father’s business partners throws her and Nick together again. As they investigate, the threads they uncover lead them close to home and, at the same time, back to the incident that led Evelyn to join the OSS in the first place.

Although the relationship between Nick and Evelyn has enough sharp edges that I was never quite sure whether I wanted them to get back together or for her to ditch him in favor of James, the oh-so-sweet boyfriend of her teen years, the dénouement, when it came, was entirely satisfying. I even enjoyed the flashbacks to Evelyn and Nick’s past in the OSS—which is saying something, since I am rather a curmudgeon when it comes to World War II overload. But here the story really benefits from those glimpses into the past, which illuminate not only choices made and the reasons for making them but the present-day (that is, 1948) plot as well.

I plan to interview this author for the New Books Network (link below) in May 2024.

Two former spies who shared more than just missions during WWII reunite in 1948 Los Angeles. Evelyn is now a PI not ready to settle into the white picket fence life and Nick is still drinking and doing private security for the man Evelyn is hired to tail.

Excellent scene setting with a compelling mystery, but I could have used a deeper POV to know Evelyn and Nick a little better. They often seemed like the same person, but maybe that was on purpose and because of the film noir-style of the unnatural fast and short dialogue.

The whole thing is very film noir. There’s a femme-fatale, a washed up detective, post-war disillusionment, and an LA location. The real difference is this has a strong female lead.

If you like disaffected heroes and hard boiled style mysteries, then you’ll like this one.

The readalikes mentioned in the description aren’t accurate. Just because you like light historical mysteries or histfic doesn’t mean you’ll like this hard boiled take. Know you’re getting more along the lines of Dashiell Hammett and not Ashley Weaver, Allison Montclair, or Jaqueline Winspear..

In 1948 two former OSS operatives, Evelyn Bishop and Nick Gallagher reunite in Los Angeles to solve a murder that’s personal to both of them. They were the perfect team during the war, but love and betrayal make them both uneasy with this partnership. Compelling characters and a plot swirling with post-war intrigue made this book hard to put down. This is meant to be one final mission for these two, but I’m hoping for more.

When I don’t care for a book, I always say, this one wasn’t for me, but others may love it. I hate when I have to say that about a debut, but Shaina Steinberg’s historical mystery, Under the Paper Moon, didn’t work for me at all. I found the protagonist, Evelyn Bishop, too indecisive when it came to her love life, and her love life seemed to take over the book, rather than the mystery itself. By the time I finished, I didn’t really care about any of the characters.

Evelyn Bishop, daughter of Logan Bishop, the wealthy owner of Bishop Aeronautics, spent World War II in Europe. While her father thought she was working as a translator, she was actually working as a spy for the OSS. She signed on after her brothr, Matthew, was captured. Knowing he was a POW in a Nazi camp, she took assignment after assignment, hoping to find him and bring him home. She was teamed up with Nick Gallagher, falling in love with him, despite his reckless behavior. But, she can’t forgive an act of betrayal, although he swore he was just trying to protect her.

By 1948, both Evelyn and Nick are back in Los Angeles. They’ve opened detective agencies, but when Evelyn follows a suspected cheating husband, the man is killed. Nick had tried to keep her from following him, but now the two are tangled up in a murder investigation. And, it’s a case with ties back to their years working for the OSS.

While the author tries to tell a story about black market profiteers and traitors during the war, there was too much emphasis on Evelyn’s personal life for my taste. The author’s note explains that she tried to reimagine a satisfying life for her grandmother, who was never able to live the life she wanted. She created Evelyn to take her grandmother’s role. It was a nice idea, but none of the characters had enough depth that I cared.

As I said, this World War II and post-war novel may work for other readers.

I believe this book is being promoted to those of use who love Kate Quinn, especially Rose Code.

This story centers around Evelyn and her experiences during World War II and the rise of mafia and black market afterward.

I liked Evelyn, but the guys in Evelyn's life (father & boyfriends) rubbed me the wrong way.

"I know you're the best at this," James began. "I trust you, I love you, and I would never tell you what to do. But there's something about this that doesn't seem right."

Trust me, Evelyn deserved better.

I loved this WWII point of view from OSS spies! It was unlike any other historical fiction that I have read, so I enjoyed reading about other things that took place during the war. We get a glimpse of POW camps briefly, traitors, spies and a little bit of love. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishing team for this ARC!

I really enjoy this one set in Europe and Hollywood it was a unique take on WWII fiction but told in a different engaging way . It was very interesting and readable. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review the book