The Spies of Shilling Lane by Jennifer Ryan

It's an achievement to come up with something new and fresh in a historical fiction genre that is bursting at the seams (specifically, WW II fiction set in England). Some of my favorites are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, Dear Mrs. Bird by A. J. Pearce, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal, and this author’s first novel The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir. 

Books set in England during this time period tend to be much different than ones set in Europe, in part because there is that keen focus on a smaller, unoccupied location where people lived  understated lives with can-do attitudes that helped them overcome the Blitz, rationing, and shortages. 

The author does that in her second novel by focusing on Mrs. Braithwaite, a rather unlikable middle-aged woman whose life is challenged and changed when she is no longer the reigning Queen Bee in her small country village and whose worry for her daughter Betty forces her to step outside her comfort zone.  She travels to London to see about her missing daughter, ostensibly with a job at the sewage works in London, and to give her what-for for not corresponding regularly. 

Barging into Betty’s rooming house on Shilling Lane, she immediately starts bossing its residents around, including the timid landlord Mr. Norris, a hesitant little man who is her contemporary.  In her search for the missing Betty, Mrs. Braithwaite sniffs out circumstances that are not as they should be, and that sets lively activities into motion.

While falling into "women's fiction" category, the book contains excellent scenes of wartime London and subversive groups working against the British government.  It is flavored by interesting characters, a fair amount of suspense, and some very funny descriptions.   Of course, no one is as they seem, and our Mrs. Braithwaite grows on the reader as well as on other characters, as she takes things into her own capable hands and starts seeing the world in new ways. 

One of my favorite quotes from the novel captures some of the flavor of the story:

     "You saw the European history books on Baxter's shelf. And the philosophy!" She [Mrs. Braithwaite] stood up, leaning across the card table. "Anyone who reads philosophy is bound to be suspicious."
     "Why is that precisely?" Mr. Norris said, affronted. "I'm partial to a spot of philosophy myself. Just because someone wants to consider other ways of thought, it doesn't make them evil."
     "It's unbiblical, not to mention un-British.”

Advance copy courtesy of Netgalley.  To be published on June 4 by Crown Publishing.
https://www.jenniferryanauthor.com/the-spies-of-shilling-lane