DEATH IN THE DARK

A chilling and adventure-filled mystery set amid the Blitz and inspired by a real serial killer.

Seventeen-year-old Mary Churchill, daughter of the prime minister, is bored with being kept away from danger during World War II. During a weeklong reprieve in London, away from the family’s countryside home, Chequers, she befriends Evelyn, a middle-aged woman, at a club. They make plans to meet the next day—but after Evelyn doesn’t show up, Mary is horrified to stumble across her body. Evelyn was brutally murdered. Determined to assist the understaffed police in finding the killer, Mary throws herself into the investigation, at times using her father’s status to help. As the war rages around her, Mary dodges bombs and hunts the killer during the nightly blackouts even as the body count rises. Moore’s latest is a gory, action-packed look at early 1940s London and the terror and havoc the Blitz wreaked on the city. The murder scenes are grisly and detailed, lending purchase to Mary’s grit and determination to find the killer. Mary’s refusal to be cowed by social conventions or looming danger—from both the Nazis and the murderer—may at times give readers pause, but her doggedness does effectively propel the plot, as during a thrilling blackout chase scene through the London Underground, which will leave readers cheering Mary on. Main characters are cued white.

This terrifying historical work will grip readers.