According to Literary Review, Dying in the Wool is ‘well plotted and atmospheric…Kate Shackleton joins [a:Jacqueline Winspear|5023|Jacqueline Winspear|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272389408p2/5023.jpg]’s Maisie Dobbs’. I’m a huge fan of the Maisie Dobbs series, so couldn’t say no to this book.

Like Winspear’s series, our main character, Kate Shackleton, has lost her husband to the Great War, and finds herself embracing her innate ability to solve mysteries and taking on a paid commission to find a friend’s missing father. From the opening paragraph, we know that Kate is plucky: ‘I’m thirty-one years old, and hanging onto freedom by the skin of my teeth. Because I’m a widow my mother wants me back by her side. But I’ve tasted independence. I’m not about to drown in polite society all over again’.

The novel is set in a fictional Yorkshire mill town, Bridgestead, and in 1922 the mill is the centre of the residents’ world. Without the mill, the village would not exist. As the missing father in question, Joshua Braithwaite, is the Master of the Mill, his disappearance has repercussions for the whole village.

One of the joys of reading, in my mind, is learning about something new - in this case, the ins and outs of weaving. Many chapters begin with the definition of a weaving term, for example: ‘Twisting-in: joining the threads of an old warp to a new warp’ and ‘Roving: the combed tops from thick slivers of wool, from which barn is spun’. Kate is also a keen photographer, and we learn about the processes involved in taking a photo in 1922 - a lot more complex than it is today! And being a photographer is, as Kate says, ‘a pastime that changes a person’s outlook’.

Brody’s research imbues the novel with an authenticity that gives her writing a real sense of time and place. She has created an appealing, independent protagonist in Kate Shackleton, and I’m looking forward to joining her in more of her adventures.