Thank you to NetGalley and to St. Martin's Press for the ARC of Betrayal at Blackthorn Park by Julia Kelly in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the second book in this series! It is a definitive improvement upon the first in that Evelyne has gained confidence and skill thanks to her six week spy training - her actions are by the book and she is able to spend time making deductions and solving crimes in a way that seems very natural and empowering as compared to her sort of being thrust into a role haphazardly in the first book.

In this book, Evelyne's training is done and she is sent on her first mission with David now serving as her handler. It is meant to be a one-night job, but when Evelyne chances upon a murder during her security testing at Blackthorn Park, she and David are thrust into solving the mystery before Winston Churchill comes to review the munitions testing in four days. Is it spys? Sabotage? Treason? Evelyne and David are on the case and put all their skills together to try to find the truth.

We get a few glimpses into Evelyne's life, including a delightful evening with her Aunt (cats with gemstone collars, jazz - this whole scene was hilarious). We also see how Evelyne is trying to balance all that she must keep secret from her roommate and best friend, Moira. I do still worry about Evelyne in this respect - she is great with mysteries and deductions, but her secret keeping skills when it comes to her loved ones still remain to be seen and might be a matter for future books (just like the slow burn mystery of her father's whereabouts which I wish we knew more of!).

Evelyne and David work well together in this book - they have really ironed out the partnership issues from the first book and treat each other with much respect and humor.

Overall this was just a really delightful read with great pacing, character development and action. I look forward to the next!

I had enjoyed A Traitor in Whitehall, so I was delighted to get the opportunity to read an advance copy of the next book in the series, thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. Evelyn has now been trained to do covert work, and Evelyne and David's latest assignment involved both suspicious activities at a munitions factory and deaths which took place there. The main characters are very likeable, and the author does a great job creating the wartime atmosphere, especially the difficulty of people needing to keep their work activities secret from even their closest friends and family. It was interesting to see how their investigation progressed with many possible suspects and motives. This was a very quick read, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I think this book could be read as a stand-alone. I highly recommend this book and the series, and I look forward to the next installment.

This WWII-set mystery series about new British agent Evelyne Redfern is proving to be a real delight. This second entry in the series sees newly trained Evelyne and her partner David investigating suspicious reports from a secret weapons development center outside London. As with the first book, which was set in the Cabinet War Rooms in London, the setting and historical context are very well done. Both are convincing and rich without ever being distracting. The mystery is compelling and has a sense of urgency, and the characters are likeable and engaging. I look forward to the next in the series. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. My review is entirely my own freely offered thoughts.