Winter in June

April 6, 2009
Actress Rosie Winter, the narrator of Haines’s lively third WWII-era mystery (after 2008’s The Winter of Her Discontent
), sets sail from San Francisco for the Solomon Islands in the spring of 1943, though a woman’s body found floating in the water nearby delays the ship’s departure. Rosie, whose ex-boyfriend is missing somewhere in the Pacific theater, is part of a USO troupe that includes adventurous friend Jayne Hamilton, who’s walking away from her mobster boyfriend, and Gilda DeVane, a former MGM player. Once on the island of Tulagi, Rosie and her pals mostly have fun performing their song-and-dance routines and consorting with friendly servicemen, until a deadly sniper attack prompts the military authorities to move the entertainers to WAAC barracks for their protection. Full of evocative period detail (a sailor is called Spanky after the kid in the Our Gang
comedies), this entry, for all its humorous and lighthearted moments, builds to a dramatic and sobering conclusion.

April 15, 2009
A USO troupe causes almost as much mayhem in the Pacific as the Japanese.

Unable to land Broadway roles and anxious to see if she can reconnect with her soldier ex- boyfriend Jack, now MIA somewhere in the Solomon Islands, Rosie Winter and her best friend Jayne join the USO and prepare to board a troupe ship headed for the Pacific. Their departure is delayed while a dead girl is fished out of the water. None of the other USO actresses admit to knowing her—not Kay, a former WAAC; not Violet, a highly competitive comedienne; not fading cinema beauty Gilda DeVane, recently dismissed by both MGM and her married lover, actor Van Lauer. Some of them are lying, of course. At length the ship docks at Tulagi, where rsums are compared and Gilda is dispatched by a bullet. It's clear, at least to Rosie, that both deaths are related. And there are more worries. Rosie learns that Jack is dead. Jayne loses her pilot beau in an air battle. And a poor Japanese soldier is framed for Gilda's murder. More sniping and more information about Jack will leave Rosie and Jayne to go on with the show with tears in their eyes.

Haines, who excels at breezy nostalgia (The Winter of Her Discontent, 2008, etc.), focuses this time on sadder wartime memories. Not a three-hankie read, but certainly rates a sniffle or two.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2009
Actress Rosie Winter and her friend Jayne travel to the Solomon Islands as part of a USO tour group during World War II, hopingto find Rosies ex-boyfriend Jack, who is now missing in action after being stationed in that area. Hollywood star Gilda DeVanehoping to rehabilitate her image after her affair with a married actor and her subsequent firing by the studiois also part of the group. Just before the ship leaves San Francisco for Tulagi, a body is found floating in the water. The victim turns out to be a former WAC who had been stationed at Tulagi. When a shooting occurs on the island, Rosie believes the murder is connected to the earlier death. Rosie and Jayne are kept busy investigating the two murders and Jacks disappearance. This third in a series is firmly set in its wartime locale and includes period slang and details of the USO and its entertainers. It will appeal to fans of Margit Liesches Pucci Lewis mysteries, also about womens roles in World War II.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)