Halley Sutton, author of The Lady Upstairs Even down the darkest of paths-including but not limited to Nazi war profiteers, shady mobsters, cops on the take, and more-Billie is a beacon of light, never losing her sense of justice, or her enjoyment in life (and a good coupe of champagne!).

Like a harder-boiled Phryne Fisher meets Martha Gellhorn, Billie is the best kind of heroine: fun, flawed, smart, feminist, and feisty. “Tara Moss’s The War Widow is an excellent novel and an even better springboard for its crackerjack heroine: the indomitable Billie Walker. Ian Rankin, New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus series

Sydney in 1946, damaged veterans, bad guys, car chases, mysteries, and a female PI up for the fight.” “Just what I needed today–a blast of the escapist past. She’s a war reporter-turned-private investigator in post-WWII Australia who-much like Moss herself-refuses to be defined or held back by any man on her quest for justice.” “ The War Widow is poised to be Tara Moss’s breakout novel in the United States, especially given the book’s saucy leading lady, Billie Walker. “With a crackling plot and vibrant prose, Tara Moss concocts a first-rate noir detective mystery.” Will he take her seriously or will he just get in her way? As the danger mounts and Billie realizes that much more than one young man’s life is at stake, it becomes clear that though the war was won, it is far from over. What is the young man’s connection to an exclusive dance club and a high-class auction house? When the people Billie questions about the young man start to turn up dead, Billie is thrown into the path of Detective Inspector Hank Cooper. Then, a young man, the son of European immigrants, goes missing, and Billie finds herself on a dangerous new trail that will lead up into the highest levels of Sydney society and down into its underworld.

So she reopens her late father’s business, a private investigation agency, and, slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking.Īt first, Billie’s bread and butter is tailing cheating husbands. But Billie is a survivor and she’s determined to take control of her own future. To make matters worse, now that the war is over, the newspapers are sidelining her reporting talents to prioritize jobs for returning soldiers. Though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be home, for her the heady postwar days are tarnished by the loss of her father and the disappearance in Europe of her husband, Jack. The war may be officially over, but journalist Billie Walker’s search for a missing young immigrant man will plunge her right back into the danger and drama she thought she’d left behind in Europe in this thrilling tale of courage and secrets set in glamorous postwar Sydney.

Man of steel and velvet hardcover