Thoroughly Modern 1920s Widow Chucks Cheek in New Mystery

"Dying in the Wool" by Frances Brody
Reviewed by David Marshall James

The "War to End All Wars" has rendered many a young Englishwoman a widow, Kate Shackleton among them.

Technically, her late husband is missing, presumed dead, in France. No one actually witnessed him perish; certainly, no body has brought proof positive.

Quite understandable, then, that Kate would answer the call of a chum from her VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) days during the war-- a friend who's about to wed and who would dearly like for her Dad to walk her down the aisle.

Trouble is, Dad's been missing since 1916, but on the homefront. Seeing as how it's been about six years, any hope of locating him seems remote.

He was made out to be suicidal at the time of his disappearance, having been discovered in a stream by a bunch of boy scouts. Carted off to a nearby psych ward (for soldiers), he should have been assigned a jail cell, given the standing law against suicide.

Nevertheless, his alleged motive arouses sympathy, as he has just lost his only son on the battlefront.

The missing father supposedly escaped the psychiatric facility and finished off the job properly, although his body has yet to surface.

Kate, who has earned a reputation for unearthing another missing person, is to receive fair wages for this latest quest. That takes her aback at the outset, although her own father, a police superintendent, suggests that she hire on an ex-copper as a sort of Dr. Watson in her private investigation.

This is, after all, 1922, and the fact of the matter is that a male investigator can poke and prod in places where a lady such as Kate cannot.

Kate can hardly expect her "Dr. Watson" to work pro bono, so she steps up to professional status.

She sets out by motorcar from her home in Leeds to the mlll village from which the missing father, a mill owner, vanished.

Immediately, Kate begins hitting brick walls in her investigation-- always a good sign for someone who's turning over stones. That is, people are hiding something.

Kate's muck-about in the past makes for a fine mystery, full of well-tailored characters and multiple layers of intrigue, leading to murder.

British author Frances Brody has a firm hand on the period, the mill milieu, and the dialogue, which cuts across all classes, from lords and ladies to weavers and dyers.

Kate's a thoroughly modern 1920s woman and taking cheek for it, but she can chuck cheek back with the best of them.