Five Dead Canaries (Home Front Detective Series #3)

Marmion and Keedy return for a third time in the acclaimed Home Front Detective series. As thousands of Brits are fighting on the Front Line, a new breed of women emerges to hold the Home Front together. Fiercely independent and fiery-spirited, these women are a raucous group of munition workers, or ‘munitionettes’. The ‘canaries’, so-called because of their chemically-stained yellow faces, decide to celebrate leader Florrie Duncan’s birthday but their frolics are soon cut short when all but one are killed in a startling explosion. With five times the victims there are five times the possible motivations for the murderer, and Marmion and Keedy certainly uncover some surprising clues. Grappling with this perplexing murder mystery involves marital dysfunction, failed bomb plots and an extremely competitive women’s football team…

REVIEWS

"Cleverly plotted, well written and invoking the atmosphere of the time, I heartily recommend this book as an excellent read."
Lizzie Hayes, Mystery Women

"I enjoyed this. Marston, as always, has a good historical understanding and plainly knows his stuff... This is very much a traditional whodunit, with the slow building-up of clues, the red herrings, and the unexpected twists and turns of the plot. It all makes for a most enjoyable read."
Historical Novels Review