The Blitz Detective

By: Mike Hollow

Narrated by: Simon Mattacks

September, 1940. The sun is shining, and in the midst of the good weather Londoners could be mistaken for forgetting their country was at war - until the familiar wail of the air-raid sirens heralds an enemy attack.

The Blitz has started, and normal life has abruptly ended - but crime has not. That night a man's body is discovered in an unmarked van in the back streets of West Ham. When Detective Inspector John Jago is called to the scene, he recognises the victim: local justice of the peace Charles Villiers. The death looks suspicious, but then a German bomb obliterates all evidence. War or no war, murder is still murder, and it's Jago's job to find the truth.

©2015 Mike Hollow (P)2020 Soundings

Love it!

I stumbled upon this new series and I am enjoying. As a result of reading later book in the series, I went back and read the first. The author does such a good job immersing the reader into the atmosphere of the period. You can picture vividly the devastation, the destruction, but also the grit and patriotism of the people. I am thoroughly enjoying the narrator which is bringing the book to life. He does an excellent job distinguishing the voices and the accents.

My new favorite detective

I really enjoyed the first in the series. Great story and I like the characters. Set during early WWII. Deceive was in first WW1 and shares stories of that rra too. may be a budding romance.

average mystery

To me, this was a historical WWII novel, with a little romance, and not as much of mystery as I would like. The narrator made it easy to enjoy.

It’s ok but..

When the story stays on the mystery and the historical events it’s pretty good. But the story drifts off to philosophizing (for lack of a better word) about politics, morality, class system and the debates about the inequities of war. Which ok, that’s fine but… it goes on and on about it quite often. Too often. After awhile you just want to say, yeah, yeah we get it, how about we get back to the mystery. Not sure if I will continue the series until I find out if this is a recurring issue in the rest of the series.

Excellent WW2 Mystery series

Very pleased with the mystery, the history and the excellent narration.
Got'em all after finishing the the first one!