Deadly Scandal by Kate Parker - #review #giveaway

Olivia Denis is a contented young wife with a carefree life in late 1930’s London. Then her world is shattered with the violent death of her husband, Reggie. The police want to call it a suicide and close the case, but Olivia knows Reggie couldn’t possibly have fired the fatal shot.

Further mysteries surface surrounding her husband’s death. Did the trustworthy Foreign Office employee betray government secrets? Was his murder linked to the death of a German embassy clerk the same night? And who searched their flat?

Her desire for answers and her need to support herself cause her to break away from the pampered life she’s known and take a job. But with the much-needed paycheck as a society reporter for a newspaper comes a secret secondary assignment—one that involves her in the increasingly dangerous world of European politics as the continent slides toward war.

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MY REVIEW

Having a husband that worked for the Foreign Office has got to be stressful at the best of times.  In London of the 1930's (with WWII on the horizon), it must have been worse.  And then Olivia's husband dies one night, victim of a gunshot.  Most of the 'powers that be' want to say it's a suicide, to avoid opening a national security can of worms.

Of course, Olivia will not accept this.  She is a loyal wife, for one.  For another thing, her husband's dominant hand was no longer fully functional, and he could not shoot a gun with that hand anymore.  But who would have gone through all the trouble to make it seem like a suicide?  Someone you probably did not want to mess with, that's for sure.  But, of course, Olivia does.

But, Reggie had secrets.  Some of them dealt with his work, and he could not share them with his wife, Olivia.  And then some of them were more personal, but he did not share them with his wife.  And while I understand Reggie's reason for his 'big secret', it was neither courteous nor gallant towards Olivia for him to keep her in the dark.

I have to 'doff my chapeau' to Olivia.  When she finds out, she takes it a lot better than I would have.  And the fact Reggie lies about it (by omission) pushes things pretty far towards the unforgivable for me.  And the real kicker is that 'society' would judge her more harshly for 'receiving attention from another gentleman' so soon after her husband's death.

But I liked Olivia.  I really did.  Not only did she have the whole Reggie situation (his death and subsequently revealed secrets) to deal with, she stood up to her father and his expectations for her.  Women of her social station were expected to get married and not work outside the home.  Expectations for Olivia were that she would return to her father's household, be in official mourning for a year or so, and then find another husband.  Well, Olivia and her father barely got along to begin with, and she didn't want to wade back into that mess, so she found herself a job at a newspaper, even getting involved with some 'going behind enemy lines' type off activities, for the best of reasons, of course.

And I'm ever so glad to hear that this is part of a series.  It's hard to get enough of our favorite characters, and Olivia definitely ranks on my list.  I can't wait to see what she gets up to next!

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

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Kate Parker has wanted to travel to 1930s England since she read her mother’s Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers mysteries when she was a schoolgirl. After many years of studying science, she decided a time travel machine was out of the question so she found herself limited to reading about the period and visiting historic sites. Her love of this fascinating and challenging period led her to the research from which the Deadly series grew. Eventually, she found it necessary to spend several days in the British Library reading old newspapers, which meant another trip to England. Near Christmas. A sacrifice she’d gladly make every year.

The first story in the series is Deadly Scandal, and she is hard at work on the sequel.

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GIVEAWAY!!!

Each stop on the tour is authorized to give away one autographed print copy of the book.  Please leave a comment for the author below to enter.  Make sure there is a way to contact you.  A random drawing will be held next week on March 10th!

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Click on the banner to go to the tour page, where you will find more reviews, as well as guest posts, interviews with the author and a chance to win at every host blog!  You can also sign up to be a blog host for future book tours!

(Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book from the author and publishers via Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my objective review.  This post contains affiliate links.)

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