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The Wages of Desire: A World War II Mystery
The Wages of Desire: A World War II Mystery
The Wages of Desire: A World War II Mystery
Ebook377 pages4 hours

The Wages of Desire: A World War II Mystery

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In the late summer of 1941, as the war deepens, Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb must risk his life to sort out the links between a series of killings—past and present—in a Hampshire village brimming with buried secrets.

In the late summer of 1941, as the war in Europe drags on, long-buried secrets begin to surface in the Hampshire village of Winstead, when the body of a young woman—a former conscientious objector—is found shot to death in the church cemetery. The woman’s only connection to Winstead seems to be that she lately had joined a group of conscripted workers who are building a prisoner of war camp on an abandoned farm near the village. But Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Lamb, who is called in to solve the case, has his doubts.

The mystery deepens when workers at the farm find the remains of a child in the foundation of the old farmhouse, and a tramp who had been squatting in the wood near the church turns up dead. Lamb soon begins to suspect that the crimes might be related to a tragic event that occurred in Winstead more than twenty years earlier—the suicide of a village woman who took her life in despair after her husband abandoned her and took their young twin sons with him. As Lamb pieces together the connections between the crimes, he draws closer to the source of evil in Winstead’s past and present and, in the end, must risk his own life to uncover the truth.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherPegasus Crime
Release dateAug 9, 2016
ISBN9781681771908
The Wages of Desire: A World War II Mystery
Author

Stephen Kelly

Stephen is a ridiculously huge fan of SciFi and in his lifetime to date has read approximately one gazillion SciFi and Fantasy books. It is his idea to bring SciFi and Fantasy to the young adult readers of the world who also like to pursue the geeky craft. Stephen is a software engineer who loves physics and maths and any literary form that combines these areas is his first love. Stephen grew up in Wicklow, Ireland, where Mark Star's adventures begin. When asked about Mark Star's current whereabouts Stephen remains resolutely tight-lipped.

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    An easily read mystery set on the Homefront during world war 2 in a British village populated with misfits. The good guys are good and sympathetic and the bad ones flat and evil. Enjoyed the setting but the story never really developed any momentum.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was my first read of the Inspector Lamb series and while it wasn't the best I've read of its genre, it was satisfactory. The impact of the war on the home front is set against local conspiracy, betrayal and the vulnerabilities of the characters.

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The Wages of Desire - Stephen Kelly

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