Australian-Canadian model turned author and human rights advocate, Tara Moss, delivers another terrific read with her second historical mystery starring wartime reporter turned private inquiry agent, Billie Walker. Following the events of The War Widow, there’s now a steady flow of work for Billie, though she still faces plenty of prejudice and is getting a little jaded by all the divorce work. Stalking unfaithful men through Sydney’s backstreets, documenting their dalliances so their worried wives can find freedom.

Then new client Vera Montgomery offers Billie something fresh: a missing husband. Except he’s been missing for two years, after serving as an official at a post-war trade expo in Paris. Enticed by double her daily fee and a chance to revisit old haunts in London and Paris (as well as dig into what really happened to her own presumed-dead husband, photojournalist Jack Rake), Billie heads to Europe with her assistant Sam.

Moss immerses readers in 1947 life in Australia and Europe: the war may have ended but its effects still haunt many people, even as politicians and others try to move on. Nazis are being tried and executed in Nuremberg, Sam is one of many servicemen to return to ‘ordinary life’ disabled, and misogyny and racism remain rampant.

Moss conjures a fascinating tale where the rich setting and characters shine brightly, but the star of the show is undoubtedly Billie Walker, a courageous heroine crying out for a long series.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson