In "The Year of the Gun",Lottie Armstrong, is recently rehired after two decades away, in the Women's Auxiliary Police Corps, WAPC for short. She is again assistant, driver actually, to her former boss DCS McMillan, with whom she has kept in contact over those years. She is grateful that he sought her out, a widow who is nonetheless comfortable, although still numb from her husband's death.
It is February 1944 in Leeds and Lottie has been back three months and the war has not slowed down the underworld. Privations throughout England have caused crime of all kinds to escalate, black markets and prostitution among them. American troops as well as their own military occupied the same areas, for the most part without jostling.
Life then abruptly changes with a call to a murder scene, and those responding wore both police uniforms and army khaki. A female military private was the victim, shot at close range with a US Army black market revolver. The next night is a repeat and then there is a third,unheard of crimes for that era.
Enter Captain Ellison and the US Army who add another dimension to everything with different agendas and regulations. A possible romantic interest for Lottie which was up and down while they fought to solve this desperate string of crimes. The ending was surprising for me, see what you think when you get your copy!
I am hoping against hope that there is another outing for Lottie. I so very much enjoyed the WWII quite accurate historical atmosphere, that this author always provides for his beloved Leeds.
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