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Smoke & Cracked Mirrors (The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries Book 1) by [Karen Charlton]

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Karen Charlton

Smoke & Cracked Mirrors (The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Karen Charlton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

223 ratings

Book 1 of 2: The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries

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York, England: 1940
‘An unsuitable job for a woman…’
When her husband goes ‘missing in action’, Jemma James returns to the city of her birth to set up a private detective agency with her best friend, Roberta ‘Bobbie’ Baker, with whom she shares a passionate love of Golden Age crime fiction.
These two enterprising young women soon find themselves embroiled in a series of mysterious cases, shadowing blackmailers and bigamists, and investigating the perplexing history of a wealthy young woman who seems determined to wipe out her past. And it’s not long before they stumble across an unsolved murder.
But the dead don’t stay dead for long in historic York.
As the ‘phoney war’ draws to a close, and the sky above the soaring twin towers of the twelfth century Minster darkens with menace, Jemma learns that even she is not above suspicion in wartime Britain.

Print length

364 pages
Language

English
Publication date

April 15, 2022
File size

4075 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Charlton conjures up an image of life on the Home Front that is both moving and scary, but the darker moments are tempered with some light hearted scenes that will have you chuckling into your cocoa. At the heart of it all is a story of friendship, family ties and battling against the odds."
- Sandra Mangan, crimefictionlover.com

About the Author

In addition to The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries, Karen Charlton is also the best-selling author of The Detective Lavender Mystery series, which is set in Regency London and features Bow Street's Principal Officer, Stephen Lavender, and his humorous sidekick, Constable Ned Woods.A former English teacher, with two grown-up children and a small grandson, Karen lives in a remote North Yorkshire fishing village with her two cats and writes full-time. She's a stalwart of the village pub quiz team. Karen always enjoys a good mystery and loves historical fiction and historical dramas on TV. She's an avid reader herself and loves to hear from her own readers. You can easily contact her via her website. For the latest news about her fiction, her public appearances and some special offers, sign up for her occasional newsletter on the home page: www.karencharlton.com --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09N1LYDBV
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 15, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4075 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 364 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #30,452 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #188 in Historical World War II Fiction
- #291 in Historical British Fiction
- #298 in Women's Detective Fiction

Customer Reviews:
223 ratings

About the author

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Karen Charlton

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Karen Charlton is the international best-selling author of The Detective Lavender Mysteries which are set in Regency London and feature Bow Street’s Principal Officer, Stephen Lavender and his humorous side-kick, Constable Ned Woods.

Her brand new series, The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries features two enterprising young women, Jemma and Bobbie, who launch a private inquiry agency in York during WW2.

In addition to this, she has written a stand-alone historical novel, 'Catching the Eagle', based on the true story of her notorious criminal ancestor and a non-fiction genealogical book, Seeking Our Eagle that explains how she and her late husband tracked down the jail-bird in their family tree.

A former English teacher, with two grown-up children and a small grandson, Karen lives in a Yorkshire fishing village with two cats and writes full-time.

A stalwart of the village pub quiz team, Karen joined them when they competed in the BBC’s famous Quiz Show, ‘Eggheads’ – a TV programme she’d never watched before. Much to her surprise, they won.

Karen loves historical fiction and TV costume drama and has always enjoyed a good mystery.

She also loves to hear from readers and you can easily contact her via her website: www.karencharlton.com

For the latest news about her novels, public appearances and some special offers sign up for her Occasional Newsletter.

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		27%
3 star		9%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

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Kindle Customer

A great start for two winning characters

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2022

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Jenna and Bobbie are good solid female characters who are supported by some interesting lesser characters. They start a detective agency and this first book describes their initial cases, in a good natured and friendly way. The setting is WW2 in York, England, which is small enough for the women to have some contacts, but still big enough to get some work. Cosy, clean, well written.

Helpful

Renee F

Many threads, one good story.

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2022

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Mystery, war, well developed characters and an ancient city as one of the main characters. What is not to like?
I was enthralled by it all. Having been educated in North Yorkshire and Durham, this has personal appeal as well as being a well told and gripping tale.
Looking forward to the next installment.

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2022

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Ms. Charlton writes another great book. I love her Detective Lavender series so I’m not surprised she has written another excellent one. This story has great characters and plot lines. Living in America, I haven’t experienced any war situations and am horrified by what I see happening in Ukraine now. Reading about Jemma carrying around a gas mask, did that really happen? That is just amazing and mind boggling to realize what people experienced in England during the Second World War. Thank you for writing such great books.

Helpful

Sandra, Jackson California, Kindle Customer

Wonderful story

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2022

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Two best friends Bobbie and Jemma who have a unique insight in catching criminals open a private detective agency in the City of York. What makes this storyline different from others is its 1940 England and WW II is in its beginning stage which brings a new twist to the cases that the young women investigate. Ms. Charlton has crafted very clever plots line and likable characters each who's back stories are as interesting as the cases are. Very entertaining.

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2022

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I love Ms. Charlton’s detective Lavander series, so when I saw a new series coming up, without hesitation I pre-ordered. Well, this book to me was slow, too many names and the ladies at Smoke & Cracked Mirrors had too many cases going at the same time which made it a bit hard to follow.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Delightful!

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2022

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A touch of WWII England, best girlfriends, a tragic loss and young women stepping out of the expected comfort zone to become lady detectives. Written with aplomb and sensitivity, with a dose of humor, what more could you want?

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2022

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A fun story with mystery, crime and a touch of romance. Helen was too easy though. I'll read more too.

Helpful

markdc

Outstanding new series

Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2022

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Just finished the new book Smoke and Cracked Mirrors. Once I started the book, I hated to put it down. Great storyline and good detail about life in York during WWII. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Clemens A. Schoonderwoert

A Very Promising York Ladies' Detective Start!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 26, 2022

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**Should read as 4.5 Stars!**

This very exciting WWII detective adventure is the 1st part of a new series called "The York Ladies' Detective Agency Mysteries", featuring Mrs Jemima "Jemma" James and Miss Roberta "Bobbie" Baker.

First of all I would like to mention that at the back of the book you'll find very useful information and historical details about persons and places in WWII within the Author's Note, and there's a Bibliography.

Storytelling is of an excellent quality, the characters are believable and lifelike, and the atmosphere and surroundings in York and other places in Yorkshire during this period of war are very vividly described and pictured.

The book starts off in March, 1940, in York, where Jemma James, after her husband, Michael, has gone "missing in action" and thus believing him dead, has come back to, and she's now hoping to find some company and security with her brother, Gabriel, who's a police officer in York and with her best friend, as long as from her schooldays, the cheerful Bobbie Baker.

Jemma decides to set up her own detective agency called, "Smoke & Cracked Mirrors", to give her life more spice and adventure, and soon enough her friend Bobbie will join her in this detective enterprise, that will turn into a lucrative but also competitive business.

Several cases that will come their way are small and with determination easy to solve, but especially the case of Helen Urwin/Gladys Mellor will bring them the necessary action and excitement.

What is to follow is an exciting and very enjoyable book, where several cases will be solves by our inquisitive and resourceful clever young ladies, and all this is brought to us by the author in her own knowledgeable and remarkable literary fashion.

Highly recommended, for this is a wonderful begin of a new series from an author who deserves much more recognition, and to come back to this first enterprising episode, I would like to call it: "A Very Promising York Ladies' Detective Start"!

One person found this helpful

John Hopper

engaging first book in her new series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2022

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This is the first novel in the author's new historical mystery series set in Second World War York. Two friends, enthusiastic amateur sleuths Jemma James and Bobbie Baker, reared on Agatha Christie, Freeman Wills Crofts and Dorothy Sayers, found a detective agency and build up a business through advertising. They have some interesting cases of insurance fraud, blackmail, adultery, and finally identity fraud and murder, though this isn't clear from the start of the events relating to that. I like Jemma and Bobbie and I enjoy the setting in York, as it's one of my favourite cities, and there were some colourful and interesting secondary characters. I don't really find the basic scenario convincing though. Could two young ladies really have made a success of this in the circumstances of the war and attitudes of the time towards women doing exciting and dangerous work? Very happy to be proved wrong, but this struck me as a little unlikely.

maryf

York Ladies Detective Agency Book 1

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2022

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As I have only just started to read this book my comments are limited. It appears that the author has certainly done her research into the city of York in connection with this time period. I am almost walking the streets with the characters, and am enjoying the story line so far. It will be interesting to see how the characters progress as the series continues.

Lynn Butler-Ellis

Another fabulous story. Looking forward to the rest.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2022

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Lovely story set in a part of the world I am familiar with. I think that Karen could have used each of their investigations in a different novel,there was so much content. I had worked out the plot and found it a little annoying that the detectives didn’t twig sooner! ( but I’m like that with all my books and tv shows) It kept me gripped to the end wondering how they would resolve it though, and love the ongoing mystery of Michael. I am now frustrated that I have to wait until November for the next instalment.

judy

Very enjoyable story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2022

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I bought this as I had enjoyed the Lavender series. I found it a very diverse investigations the women pursued the one with the lady and her maid I guessed. I look forward to the next book to see if they solve the mystery of Michael my guess he is with S.O.E.

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