When Winter Returns
When I first began reading When Winter Returns, I didn’t realize it was the fourth in a series, but by the time I was 50 pages in, I had already ordered the first three because I was enjoying myself so much. While I wish I had read them in order, my enjoyment wasn’t diminished in the slightest since the author did such a superb job of pulling me into this mystery set in 1943 NYC. This is one fun book that has definitely hooked me on the entire series!
When Winter Returns follows budding actress Rosie Winter as she comes home from a USO tour with her best friend, Jayne. The first stop the ladies make is to visit the parents of Jayne’s fiancé, who was killed in the South Pacific. While there, however, Rosie makes the startling discovery that Jayne’s fiancé had lied to them by stealing the identity of another soldier who had died earlier in the war. This discovery is only the beginning of the mysteries surrounding Billy DeMille, and while Jayne is inclined to let things go, Rosie is determined to get to the truth. Meanwhile, the girls also find themselves blackballed from the theater by a member of the mob and hiding a male friend in their all-girl boarding house; when another murder occurs, the girls realize they are in grave danger from more than one quarter.
Full of ’40s flavor and ambience, When Winter Returns is just a delight from start to finish. While the mystery itself isn’t too complicated, the story is fleshed out by the appearance of Rosie’s ex-boyfriend and relationships among the women of the boarding house. The characters literally jump off the page and capture you from the very start. I cannot wait to read more of this series! Great fun.
