Review A Billie Walker #1 Mystery.

This book was a romp through post war Sydney's steamier parts. Billie Walker, recently returned from Europe, where she worked as a journalist, takes over her late father's Detective Agency. Nothing deters this lady as long as she has the right shade of lipstick, Fighting Red. However Fighting Red is on its way out and so will Billie be if she doesn't get some private detection work pretty soon. While divorce cases pay for most of her needs, Billie longs for some serious work. Life get a lot more interesting when Mrs Brown walks in the door asking Billie to find her 17 year old son, Adin. What at first seems to be a simple missing person case, quickly turns to murder and poor Con Zervos certainly didn't deserve to turn up dead in three different locations around Sydney. What on the surface seems to be a lighthearted case, soon turns deadly serious.

For the author, Tara Moss, it was a book written for her family, who live through the dark days of World War 2. Authentic and wonderfully researched, this book tackles serious issues of Race, but in a entertaining way that will keep the reader involved right up to the end. Set in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, I felt a sense of place in a landscape that I have only passed through, but one the author knows intimately. I enjoyed this book and I will hopefully be reading more about Billie Walker in the near future. I gave the book 4 Stars

Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia who gave me an advanced copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review (less)