{"id":6093,"date":"2024-11-11T07:46:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T15:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6093"},"modified":"2024-11-11T07:46:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T15:46:20","slug":"kristi-jones-murder-in-the-ranks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/kristi-jones-murder-in-the-ranks\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristi Jones: Murder in the Ranks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debut<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another WWII book….nooooo….but, wait.\u00a0 It was a big war with lots of unexpected corners and revelations, and this book highlights a bit of the war I hadn\u2019t ever known about.\u00a0 It\u2019s focused on the WAACs, or Women\u2019s Army Auxiliary Corps.\u00a0 As originally created, the women who volunteered to serve had none of the rights of the men in the regular army.\u00a0 This was pretty quickly corrected and the WAACs became simply the WACs, without \u201cauxiliary\u201d in the moniker. \u00a0For the purposes of this novel, however, Auxiliary Dottie Lincoln has signed up as a WAAC and is serving alongside other women in Algiers, at a time when the war wasn\u2019t going so well for the Allies.<\/p>\n

As the book opens, Dottie is at a dance \u2013 one of the WAACs\u2019 \u201cduties\u201d was to dance with the men and give them a little cheer before they head to the front.\u00a0 Men being men, they are pretty handsy and needy, and Dottie is occupied in saving one of her number from an especially persistent soldier.\u00a0 The woman, Ruth, is one of the most straightlaced in their group, adhering as closely as possible to every rule and regulation.\u00a0 It\u2019s with great shock then, when, later in the evening, Ruth plunges off the roof of the hotel where the dance was being held.\u00a0 It\u2019s seen as a suicide, but Dottie refuses to believe it and it\u2019s her bull-headed persistence that forces the MP in charge to take a look at Ruth’s death as something else.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve said so many times before, this is a mystery novel, so naturally the death is not a suicide.\u00a0 Dottie has good instincts, though her efforts are sometimes stymied as she attempts to get men to pay attention and take her seriously when she\u2019s seen mostly as \u201cjust\u201d a secretary.\u00a0 (WAACs did many jobs but the bulk was secretarial, though they also served as drivers, translators, switchboard operators and more).\u00a0 Captain Devlin, the MP in charge, eventually recognizes a brain when he encounters one and does listen to what she\u2019s saying.<\/p>\n

The book takes a good look at the various girls in the unit.\u00a0 They are a little annoyed as they have mountains of work and Dottie has been requisitioned by the MP \u2013 but this allows Dottie, through questioning, to examine their backstories and for the reader to discover their different personalities and different reasons for being in the war. Dottie\u2019s heartbreaking backstory is also teased out through the book.<\/p>\n

The details of their lives \u2013 they are living in a convent, much to the displeasure of the mother superior \u2013adds interest to the narrative, as does the setting.\u00a0 The author really seems to capture the feel of wartime Algiers. The women in the unit are mostly sturdy, practical and uncomplaining (with a few exceptions, of course), and all are there to further the war effort however they can. They are a wonderful backbone to this lively story.<\/p>\n

The book is paced nicely and the characters are really well drawn.\u00a0 The solution is ingenious, though I will say Dottie misses an annoyingly obvious opportunity to find the evidence she needs much, much earlier than she actually does, but the book was such a fun read this was more of a momentary annoyance than a quibble with the entire book.\u00a0 \u00a0This is a great debut, set at a time when there were still a couple years left in the war, so if there are sequels to this one there\u2019s some room to grow.\u00a0 Dottie is an incredibly engaging and appealing heroine. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debut Another WWII book….nooooo….but, wait.\u00a0 It was a big war with lots of unexpected corners and revelations, and this book highlights a bit of the war I hadn\u2019t ever known about.\u00a0 It\u2019s focused on the WAACs, or Women\u2019s Army Auxiliary Corps.\u00a0 As originally created, the women who volunteered to serve had none of the rights … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1925,943,10,1923,1924,1276,1926,149],"class_list":["post-6093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-algiers","tag-crooked-lane-books","tag-historical","tag-kristi-jones","tag-murder-in-the-ranks","tag-robin-agnew","tag-waacs","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6093"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6113,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions\/6113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}