Complex mystery of explosion that kills five munitions workers in and English town. Foreign agents, personal vendetta? Many twists and turns and a satisfying conclusion. ( )

Warning: this review contains spoilers

****

It's the First World War, and one major change on the home front is that women are taking on jobs traditionally associated with men. At the munitions factory in Hayes, the women who assemble explosives are known as "canaries" because their exposure to TNT and sulphur turns their complexions yellow. One day, six of the "canaries" have a birthday party at a local pub; however, the party room is blown up and five of the women are killed, the sixth having a lucky escape. Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy are assigned to the case and are under pressure to deliver a solution fast.

I liked the historical background of the story, which is why I picked this up in the first place. Books set on the home front in WW1, especially ones that involve women in non-traditional roles, tick quite a few boxes for me.

However, as a mystery it was not entirely satisfying. The criminal is introduced suddenly in the last couple of chapters, meaning that the reader cannot possibly guess whodunnit.

I also puzzled over some of the word choices: a few of the canaries were on the factory's soccer team, which of course they would call a "football" team, being in Britain. However, sometimes the characters would refer to the sport as "soccer", which I found surprising. Would British people of that time period use the word "soccer", or was it included for the benefit of a North American audience? If the editor wanted to change a term for the benefit of North Americans, the term "outhouse" would have been a good choice. Apparently "outhouse" can be used in the generic sense to mean an "outbuilding", such as a shed or barn, but in North America it has a more…specific meaning. (Me: "Gross, why are they having a party in an outhouse?") Or, to avoid the outhouse/outbuilding issue entirely, why not just refer to the building as a shed or "the old stables" or whatever it actually was?

This was the first book I read in the series, and it was easy to pick up clues about the detectives' backgrounds as the story progressed. Whether I read more will depend on if I see the books at the library and happen to be thinking about them. ( )