Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett

Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett Rating: ★★★ Publication Date: January 1, 1944 Genre: fiction Pages: 235 ReRead?: No Project: dean street december Judy sat staring out of the railway carriage window. Of course there was a war on, but could any train that was trying at all really dawdle the way this one was doing? On the way to her new munitions work in the village of Pinlock, Judy Rest meets handsome, dynamic Nick Parsons, who turns out (after the two engage in some extremely careless talk) to be engaged in top secret work at the same factory. Nick warns her about suspicious goings-on at her new billet, wherein a suspicious death has recently occurred, but Judy is unphased. As she adapts to her work and learns to maintain the proper rhythm with her lathe ("The girls in this group say that 'White Christmas' just swings it nicely"), more deaths occur at home-with even a dog as victim!-and despite Nick's protection, Judy just might be next. First published in 1944 and Noel Streatfeild's only foray into the mystery genre, this novel features not only suspense and romance, but vivid scenes of wartime factory life, some potent psychology, and an array of wonderfully likeable (and loathable) characters.

Dean Street December is hosted by Liz at Adventures in Reading, Running and Working from Home. You can find her main post here.

I read Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett for Dean Street December last year, and I do think it was the more charming book.

Published in 1944, this is definitely a WWII book, with a main character who has been assigned to work at a munitions factory. She is billeted in a large old manor house with a kind elderly woman, Mrs. Former, and her spinster daughter, Miss Rose. There are two other occupants of the house: Clara Roal, who is some sort of a daughter-in-law and her very strange son, Desmond.

This is billed as Scarlett’s singular foray into mystery writing, and, frankly, that’s for the best. The parts of the book that weren’t “mysterious” were quite enjoyable: character interactions, the light romance between Judy and Nick, a young man she meets on the train. The mystery, though, in my opinion, was not good.

Maybe this is because I’ve read a lot of mysteries written in the 1940’s, and this one just didn’t work for me. It was obvious from the get go who was behind the suspicious deaths, and the climactic scene between Judy and the murderer was absurd.

Overall, though, I still enjoyed the book. Scarlett has a nice, frothy writing style and her romantic pairings are delightful. I have a couple more of her books on my TBR, and it’s likely that over the next few years, I’ll read them all!