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A Dangerous Act of Kindness

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A Dangerous Act of Kindness by LP Fergusson
Recommended for: Adults
Format: eBook

The dog bounded across the snowy field during a cold night in Britain.  Trailing behind on horseback, Millie called, “Gyp!  Come back!”   Gyp sniffed the ground and wound his way over to the barn.  Millie entered the shadowy structure.  She stopped short.  A man slumped against a bale, his arm at an odd angle.  With his other hand, he was pointing a gun directly at her.  Was this a German soldier?  Had he escaped the recent plane crash?  Locals had assumed he had died in the fire.  “Let me help you,” implored Millie.  “Help me?” responded her enemy.

Millie’s husband was dead.  She’d found him hanging at the end of a rope six months ago.  She wished she’d helped him before it was too late.

A snow storm was coming.  Could she aid this man without the knowledge of her neighbor, Hugh and her Land Girl, Brigsie?  Snow or not, the cows would need milking in the morning.  Brigsie would be by early to help.  And Hugh often came by too.  He would gladly become more than Millie’s friend if she gave him any encouragement.  Was she over her grief?

A Dangerous Act of Kindness is narrated by Millie, Hugh, and Lukas, the injured German.    The story reveals various perspectives of war, of love, and of forgiveness.  I was moved by the universal themes that cross culture and time.

Find it on OverDrive/Libby!

 

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary

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Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
Format: eBook, digital audiobook
Who it’s for: Adults

Maggie was looking forward to graduate studies in math at MIT.  When her grandmother passed, Maggie had to return to the land of her birth: England.  She planned to sell her inheritance: a big old Victorian house. Yet, with the war underway, it was no time to sell. Instead, Maggie welcomed boarders and friends: Irish Chuck (Charlotte), ballerina Sarah, stylish Paige, and the “Ding-bell” twins, Annabelle and Clarabelle.  Slowly, Maggie would fix-up the aged house.

One night, a young woman missed her bus and so walked home. On the way, she was murdered. David, a personal secretary to Churchill, urged his friend Maggie to apply for the dead woman’s job. So, Maggie joined the typing pool in the Prime Minister’s office. She longed for a more mathematical challenge. Yet, soon she had her hands full. Someone set off a bomb in a nearby train station. Was it the IRA? Also, when Maggie found some dots and dashes in the newspaper, she suspected that she had stumbled on more than an ad. Could Maggie break the code? With terrorists and spies underfoot, could Maggie help her friends and homeland before it was too late?

For all who love historical stories of suspense, this is the ticket.  And it’s the first book in a series!

Find it on OverDrive/Libby!

Death Comes to Pemberley

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Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
Format: eBook, digital audiobook
Who it’s for: Teens, Adults

Have you read Pride and Prejudice? Pride and Prejudice is the foundation of Death Comes to Pemberley.

Six years have passed. Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy have two young sons. Jane and Charles Bingley have twin girls and a son. Darcy’s sister Georgiana has “reached her majority.” Two men want to court Georgiana. One is Fitzwilliam, Darcy’s military cousin. The other is a young lawyer, Henry Alveston.

The Darcys, Bingleys, Fitzwilliam, and Alveston have just finished dinner at Pemberley. Fitzwilliam departs on horseback for some fresh air. A carriage careens to a stop in front of Pemberley. Elizabeth’s sister, Lydia, bursts out of the carriage, wailing that her husband, Wickham, is dead in the Pemberley forest. Elizabeth draws her sister inside to console her. Fitzwilliam returns. He commandeers the male guests and some servants to form a search party.

In the forest, they encounter George Wickham in a clearing, leaning over the bloodied body of his military companion, Martin Denny. “I killed him!” cries Wickham. Fitzwilliam and Darcy carry Denny’s lifeless body out of the forest on a stretcher. Alveston and a servant accompany Wickham back to Pemberley.

Lydia, Wickham, and Denny had traveled together in the carriage to deliver Lydia to Pemberley as an unexpected guest. Wickham, unwelcomed at Pemberley, would travel on with Denny. At the edge of the forest, Denny cried, “I won’t do it!” He jumped out of the carriage and plunged into the forest. Wickham ran after him. Shortly thereafter, Lydia heard gun shots from deep in the forest.

Did Wickham commit murder? Was Fitzwilliam’s horseback ride suspicious? What wouldn’t Denny do? Who else may have killed Denny? Death Comes to Pemberley spins a murder mystery that is true to the characters of Jane Austen’s novels. For all who love the works of Jane Austen as well as mysteries, this is a worthwhile read.

Find it on OverDrive/Libby!