Murder and Blackmail in a Quiet English Village

OLIVE BRIGHT, PIGEONEER

Stephanie Graves

Kensington Books

December 29, 2020

World War II has fully engulfed the continent, but things are much the same in the pretty village of Pipley in Hertfordshire. Despite food shortages, rationing, and other inconveniences, the Women's Institute is determined to keep morale up and do its bit for the war effort. Twenty-two-year-old Olive Bright has bigger hopes, however. She had to interrupt her veterinary studies because of her stepmother's illness and is home helping out in her father's veterinary practice and caring for the family's prize-winning racing pigeons. The Brights hope that the National Pigeon Service will accept the birds to carry coded messages for the British Army. Failing that, she would like to join FANY and serve, as her mother did in WWI, as a nurse or ambulance driver. Her somewhat irascible and demanding father seems to have antagonized the NPS, and hopes are fading. When two young men show up asking to see the pigeons, her hopes are raised until she realizes that neither knows anything about pigeons. Instead, they offer her a chance to work with "Baker Street," a covert operation running missions with the French Resistance. She just has to prove that her pigeons are up to the task. The usual flow of village life is interrupted by murder. Local busybody Miss Husselbee, otherwise known as the "Sargeant Major," had plenty of people who found her absolute certitude on what is proper insufferable, but who among them wanted her dead? The possibility of blackmail and treason seems to be at the center of the case. Olive tries to put some of the methods of her favorite sleuth, Hercule Poirot, to the test to solve the murder.

While I enjoyed the book overall, especially Olive's love and care for her pigeons, I also thought that the plot was going in too many directions. The characters are well-drawn, and the portrayal of village life in wartime excellent. However, it bogged down somewhat. The inclusion of a love-hate relationship with her Baker Street "handler" Jameson Aldridge was one too many elements for me. He could give even her father pointers in obnoxious behavior but does redeem himself in the end,

Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for a digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 3 Stars