Review by Booklist Review
During World War II, aeronautics heiress Evelyn Bishop, desperate to find her brother in a POW camp, joins the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), undertaking missions behind enemy lines. She falls in love with team leader Nick, but they part on bitter terms after their last mission. After the war, she returns to Los Angeles and starts a PI business rather than marry her longtime friend James Hughes. Her latest client is the beautiful wife of munitions plant owner George Palmer, and the case finds Evelyn in a nightclub with James, deflecting a marriage proposal. Just as Evelyn sneaks a picture of George with a waitress, she is blocked by George's bodyguard--none other than Nick. Within hours, George is dead, the waitress is missing, and the threads of Evelyn's past and current lives collide. Nick and Evelyn work the case together, bringing to the surface secrets long buried. The romance, the trail of betrayal, and the critical flashbacks give a cinematic feel to this postwar thriller.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Screenwriter Steinberg's fizzy debut balances quick-witted romance with colorful bursts of two-fisted action. Beautiful socialite Evelyn Bishop has retired to 1948 Los Angeles after spying on Germany for the United States during WWII. While she's initially grateful for the change of pace, Evelyn soon realizes she can't return to a life of charity galas and doubles tennis, so she sets up shop as a private eye. Her first client, Collette Palmer, wants to know whether her husband, George, is cheating on her. The seemingly straightforward job spirals out of control when Evelyn finds George's bullet-riddled corpse in his mistress's apartment. What's more, she learns that Nick Gallagher, a troubled fellow spy whom she grew close to during the war, is back in Los Angeles and was working as George's private security. With Evelyn and Nick equally in the dark about George's death, they agree to investigate it together, potentially rekindling their romantic flame just as Evelyn begins to question her betrothal to her childhood sweetheart, James. Steinberg's screenwriting experience serves her well in a plot that often feels plucked from a black-and-white rom-com. While the narrative unfolds predictably, there's plenty of bounce and bite in the execution. Readers will be eager to see what Steinberg does next. Agent: Kathy Green, Kathy Green Literary. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
World War II may be over, but its wounds are far from healed. While her father, a wealthy Los Angeles aircraft manufacturer, thought she was working as a translator in London, Evelyn Bishop was actually an agent for the Office of Strategic Services in occupied France. Now, in 1948, her restless nature leads her to open an office as a private investigator catering to the women of LA, like the French wife of munitions and tank manufacturer George Palmer. On a nightclub date with her lifelong friend James Hughes, she's watching Palmer, a friend of her father, whose wife suspects he's having an affair. Palmer ends his meeting with gangster Mickey Cohen's bookkeeper and soon departs with pretty young waitress Katie Pierce. Following them out, Evelyn runs into Nick Gallagher, who's working security for Palmer. Nick was Evelyn's boss at OSS and the love of her life, and she can't forgive him for keeping her out of postwar OSS with no explanation. And there's a good reason he hasn't told her why. When Evelyn was sent to blow up an ammo dump, she attempted to free her brother, Matthew, and the other prisoners in a nearby POW camp. Matthew was killed during the escape, and Nick found crates from her father's company inside, something he's kept hidden from Evelyn ever since. When Palmer's shot dead in Katie's apartment, Evelyn and Nick reluctantly band together to discover a motive and catch the killer. All roads lead back to the war, and their dangerous mission raises the distinct possibility that Palmer and her father were traitors. An exciting character-driven combination of mystery, thriller, and love stories, with plenty of twists in all three. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
