Thankyou to NetGalley, Dancing Dog Books, Independent Book Publishers Association, and the author, Mary Alder, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Shadowed By Death in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
I thought the book was well written with intriguing characters. I enjoy a story that offers multiple plot line to keep you turning the pages to find out how it all ends.
worth a read.

historical-figures, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, world-war-ll, mystery, law-enforcement, dogs, resistance-efforts, us-marine 

The good, the bad, and the clueless. A Marine damaged in the Pacific war is temporarily returned to the Homicide division at home whrre he investigates some suspicious events and seems surrounded by displaced people from mainland Europe. Ably assisted by his canine counterpart and a long leg brace, Oliver finds himself learning more than he can handle about the situations his new acquaintances have endured and the head in the sand attitude of the American government about their lives here in the US. Set in 1944 in California and clearly the sanitized novelization of much research, this is a book that is all too easily believed. As with most good mysteries, there are several entwined plots which all come together. The publisher's blurb gives clues but spoilers are not needed. 
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Dancing Dog Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Oliver Wright has returned home from the Pacific minus a leg.  The Marine is trying to settle back into his pre-war job as a homicide detective in San Francisco but unrelenting pain, haunting memories and his superior’s apprehension about his disability, makes it difficult.  Aided by his wartime companion, Harley, a German shepherd, Oliver is determined to do the job that he loves.  The discovery of a mysterious woman beaten almost to death and dumped on the grounds of the Presidio coupled with a frightened little girl, a beautiful Polish resistance fighter who has left her children behind, a grandmotherly Italian restaurateur and a community of Jewish chicken farmers lead Oliver to fear that the evil tentacles of the war in Europe has reached California. 

Facing his own demons, Oliver is actually one of the more sensitive detective characters I’ve come across.  His relationship with his dog Harley is one of the best parts of the novel.  It’s only 1944 and the war in Europe is not over.  There are a lot of questions left unanswered so we can assume that Oliver and Harley will be back.  There were some disjointed bits along the way but it is clear that Adler has done her research and I enjoyed reading about wartime San Francisco.

It’s 1944, and Oliver is working as a police detective with his German Shepherd Harley when he gets an assignment assigned to guard Sophia, a Polish Jewish Resistance fighter who has come to the US to tell about the atrocities she has witnessed, and to raise money. Someone wants desperately to silence her. Another Polish woman is found unconscious and seriously injured in the city—are they connected somehow?  The author has obviously done extensive research into the Russian role in the Holocaust, and knowledge of the situation in the USA (for example, I had no idea there was a community of Jewish chicken farmers in Petaluma, CA). Her research, the compelling characters she’s created, and the setting of wartime San Francisco make this a not-to-be-missed thriller.

I was drawn to reading this book, first, by nostalgia.  The setting of the San Francisco Presidio and nearby locations is familiar to me.  The time period is that of my early childhood--I was a WWII baby, but too young to remember much firsthand detail about it.  I do remember how everything in those days was focused on the wartime effort; many adults in my family served in various ways, overseas and on the home front.

Those who are not familiar with stories of that war may find this book difficult to read.  It is apparent that the author has done much research, and we learn almost too much of the depths to which human beings can sink.  In truth, I chose to skip passages of this book; I have heard some of these stories before and did not feel like putting myself though them again.  Still, this is a worthy effort; the story is intriguing and the characters, particularly our hero Oliver Wright, hold our interest.  And I did enjoy reading about these landmarks in those historic days.