LIPSTICK AND LIES

The year 1943: Enemy agents are working to attack the U.S. from within.

Pucci Lewis, a WASP pilot with a sideline in espionage, ferries planes around the country. Trained by the OSS, she’s unexpectedly seconded to the FBI when she arrives in Detroit. She enjoys working for attractive Agent Dante until she’s sent to jail disguised as a jewel thief to try to get close to Countess Grace Buchanan-Dineen, a counter-agent who may be double-crossing the Bureau. Next she’s disguised as a reporter ensconced in the ritzy Cosmos Club, where she’s supposed to be interviewing women contributing to the war effort while keeping an eye on Otto Renner, who’s suspected of passing classified information to the enemy from the nearby Willow Run aircraft factory. Renner’s wife is a beautician at the Cosmos Club, and society sisters Dee and Kiki Barclay-Bly, along with Kiki’s husband V-V, a former Ukrainian freedom fighter, may also be undermining the home front. Pucci is shocked to meet her OSS roommate and dear friend Liberty Leach working as a manicurist at the club. When Liberty begs Pucci not to reveal her identity, Pucci wonders if she’s caught in another turf war between government agencies or a more sinister conflict. In her reporter guise, Pucci interviews many suspects before her sleuthing rolls up the spy ring.

A sharply written adventure/mystery debut with a fine feeling for the period.