The Unexpected Return of Josephine Fox by Claire GradidgeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Josephine Fox was kicked out of the small town of Romsey when she was fourteen by her grandfather. She was illegitimate and never knew her father, and her mother abandoned her with her grandparents. Now, many years later, after nursing her mother prior to her death, Jo has returned to Romney after learning on her mother's deathbed that her father is still alive and living in Romney.
Its wartime in England but small-town memories run deep and many people shun Jo (now Mrs Lester, although her husband is missing presumed dead after Dunkirk) so she sort of blackmails an old childhood friend, Bram Nash, local solicitor and coroner, into giving her a job - hoping it will allow her to search his records for clues to her father's identity. Jo's return coincides with a stray Luftwaffe bomb which destroyed the local pub, killing seven regulars and an unknown young woman. The local police and doctor are keen to argue that the young woman dies in the bombing but her appearance suggests otherwise.
What Jo and Bram uncover is that the young woman's murder has links to Jo's past and solving one may uncover the other.
I really enjoyed this - thank you Amazon Prime for giving me the chance to read this free - a thoughtful amateur detective story set during WW2 but featuring a man who was badly injured in WW1 and a woman who has been ostracised due to the accident of her birth.
Already read the second one and requested the third from NetGalley.
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