Winter in June

Rosie Winter's not one to say no, and when she hears her ex-boyfriend Jack has gone missing while stationed in the war time South Pacific,she's determined to get answers. Rosie talks best friend Jayne into joining a USO show going to the area, and while Rosie's not sure what she's going to find once she arrives in Tulagi, she certainly wasn't expecting a murder. Or even two for that matter.


The third installment of Kathryn Miller Haines's superb WWII mystery series, Winter in June, is just as riveting as the first two. Filled with characters that leap off the page, the series loses nothing when it shifts to the South Pacific. Rosie's still fiery and headstrong, and she and Jayne once again find themselves smack in the middle of several mysteries. This time they share the USO stage with famous actress Gilda DeVane, whose own personal scandal has put her career at risk. While balancing the demands of the show, Rosie searches for any sign of Jack; meanwhile, supplies are disappearing and snipers are taking shots around camp. Oh, and remember Peaches? Somehow he manages to turn up in the islands as well.


I just love this series! Rosie is a perfect sleuth who doesn't know she's a sleuth; her tough mindedness and sharp mouth make her one of my favorite characters ever. While the mysteries aren't particularly deep, they are well plotted, and the mix of romance into this one was pitch perfect. I could picture WWII Tulagi and the sacrifices made by the Allied soldiers and the USO both. Entertaining and wildly fun, Winter in June had me hooked from the first words. Do yourself a favor and pick this series up now.

I've read the fourth (When Winter Returns) already but can't review it here until it shows up in the Historical Novel Society's newest edition. Suffice it to say that it's just as wonderful...and ends on a cliffhanger.

~taminator40

Rosie's Discontent

The Winter of Her Discontent is the second book in the Rosie Winter series by Kathryn Miller Haines and it's a winner for sure. Rosie, our intrepid heroine, finds out early on that her friend Al has been fingered as the murderer of a fellow actress but she's not buying it. In typical Rosie style, she's unable to let the subject go, and her investigation takes her into the black market world of the Mob, the machinations of some local actresses as they search for wealth and publicity, and the famous Stage Door Canteen. All of the adventures take place against WWII New York City, with Rosie's acting career placing her in the midst of the action; her heart, however, is still with ex-boyfriend Jack, missing in action somewhere in the South Pacific.

Haines does a dynamite job bringing the details of the era to life and paints pictures with her words that make you feel as though you are in Rosie's shoes as she investigates with her trademark smart mouth and bullheaded fortitude. Though the book is heavy on the slang of the times, it really adds a film noir feel to the plot. The mystery is deeply layered and Haines does a good job of not making the culprit(s) obvious. There is a problem throughout where the names Donald and George are used interchangeably, which is confusing (and should have been caught by an editor). But other than that minor misstep, The Winter of Her Discontent is a fun mystery that will keep you turning the pages. I've got book #3 lined up and ready to go!

~taminator40

Rosie Strikes a Chord

Set amid the theatre scene of war-time NYC, The War Against Miss Winter introduces us to the irrepressible Rosie Winter, an aspiring actress looking for her big break but forced to work as a file clerk in a detective agency to make ends meet. As 1942 ushers in 1943, Rosie finds herself about to be thrown out of her working actresses only boarding house and her boyfriend shipping out for the war. Things take another turn for the worse when she discovers her boss's corpse, leading her to try to find out who murdered him and made it look like a suicide.

Rosie's a busy girl, but she is also tenacious, sarcastic, headstrong, and determined, so she begins following clues to find out what might have gotten her boss killed. Along the way, she meets some unsavory characters and uncovers traces of a missing play at the root of the act. With her best friend Jayne, Rosie goes full tilt toward solving the dangerous mystery while suffering through humiliating rehearsals as an understudy in a not very good play.

While I wasn't particularly surprised at the mystery, I will say that the setting and the characters are truly the heart of this novel. Rosie is just wonderful with her subtle manuevers and her fierce loyalty, and the people she encounters in both her professional and personal lives are just as interesting. I could feel the war coloring everything as it must have done, and I could easily picture the burgeoning theatre community of the times. This novel is so much fun and the beginning of an intriguing series. I can't wait to get to the next one!

~taminator40

The Blackstone Key

The Blackstone Key by Rose Melikan is my latest review book, and I wish I had a glowing review for it. It's not that it's a bad book by any means; there are parts of it that move quickly and kept me interested. But overall the book was just so unfocused! At times it read like an Austen novel, complete with romantic innuendo and intrigue, and then it would switch over to mystery mode, which I found at times confusing and at times just plain boring. A more focused approach might have given the story a fluid storyline; instead I was bounced between romance and mystery without either being woven well into the other. Among my other gripes is that just when the "Austen-ish" feel would take over, the gentlemen would begin cursing in front of the lady, something so out of the time customs that it would just jerk me out of the story. Plus I kept feeling as though it was set in the wrong time period; the Austen-ish (I hate to keep using that word, but that's how it seemed) feel made it seem as though it should have been fifteen-twenty years later than 1795, but the necessity of the war between France and Britain kept it from that setting. Does that make sense? Probably about as much sense to you as reading it did to me....

It's not a bad book. I need to keep reiterating that. It's just that it's not what I was expecting, and beyond that, it didn't live up to its potential. I can accept historial mystery, and I can accept historical romance, but when they should be woven seamlessly and they aren't, it just drags the book down.

I have a much fuller review available on amazon at http://www.amazon.com/review/R2O41T105G87T8/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm.

~taminator40