The War Widow launches Australian author Tara Moss's (The Fictional Woman) series starring journalist Billie Walker. World War II has been over for a year, but even in Australia, its economic and psychological effects are still being felt. Billie is reeling from the disappearance of her photographer husband, Jack, in the final months of the war. To distract her from her grief and pay the rent, Billie has reopened her late father's investigative agency (much to her baroness mother's chagrin).
Moss describes Billie's world meticulously, paying special attention to clothes (both Billie's homemade couture and her clients' sartorial habits). She tracks Billie's movements across Sydney as she searches for Adin Brown, a missing teenage boy whose mysterious connection to an upscale auction house may hold the clue to his disappearance. With the help of her assistant, Sam, an enigmatic war veteran, Billie begins to unravel a case that points to not only Adin's kidnapping but also theft, Nazi war crimes and the possible abduction of several Aboriginal girls. Billie's love for fast cars and red lipstick calls to mind the classic tropes of film noir, while the contrast between Sydney's glittering nightclubs and an isolated homestead in the bush highlights the secrets hidden by people who fought on both sides of the war. With a plot that races against time and a heroine who thinks nothing of strapping a Colt to her lace garter, Billie's first case is a satisfying setup for her future exploits. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams