A courage undimmed

It's late 1941 in Graves's spellbinding third Olive Bright mystery (after 2021's A Valiant Deceit), and headstrong, impulsive Olive of Pipley, Hertfordshire, is doing her bit helping out at a covert training center for saboteurs and assassins. Not even Olive's family knows she's been recruited by the enigmatic Col. Jamie Aldridge to secretly train homing pigeons for missions into occupied Europe. As a cover for Jamie's ubiquitous presence, the two pretend to be in love. But as the war drags on, Olive comes to the unsettling realization that her pretend love for Jamie may be only too real. Meanwhile, Pipley's newest resident, self-proclaimed medium Velda Dunbar, agrees to conduct a séance at the home of one of Olive's friends. But the show has barely begun when Velda dies. Poisoned, the doctor says. An accident, or was someone at the séance keen to punish the fraudulent spiritualist? The murder investigation is secondary to fascinating historical detail, as Graves paints a gritty picture of war on the home front. This portrait of sacrifice, bravery, and the unbreakable power of a community during WWII should win Graves new fans. Agent: Rebecca Strauss, DeFiore & Co. (Feb.)

The murder of a medium presents a prickly problem for a village sleuth in World War II England. When Capt. Jameson Aldridge first approached pigeoneer Olive Bright to provide birds for espionage missions in occupied Europe, they used the story of a budding romance as a cover for spending time together. Now that Olive's working at nearby Brickendonbury Manor, home to a training school for agents, the fake romance is becoming real for her as her desire to become an agent battles her fear that she's not brave enough to pull it off. Olive, who's developed a reputation as a sleuth after solving several murder cases and who is very active in village affairs, is appalled when Mrs. Velda Dunbar, a newcomer and spiritualist, goes into a trance on the village green and announces the sinking of the HMS Bartholomew with several local men onboard. Lady Revell, whose sister recently passed away, asks Mrs. Dunbar to arrange a séance, and Olive is asked to invite a select group. Assigned to escort a Navy officer on a tour of the manor, she finds Lt. Cmdr. Ian Fleming clever but arrogant, with ulterior motives that obviously have to do with Mrs. Dunbar. Mrs. Dunbar has a special cabinet set up for the séance and, with the help of her husband, puts on quite a show until she begins "thrashing about the cabinet, her body heaving and shuddering"--and mysteriously dies. Since she turns out to have two different poisons in her system, Olive has two possible killers to track down while training her pigeons for an important and dangerous mission that could change the course of the war. A charming portrayal of village life, romance, and sacrifice set against the horrors of war. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.