This warm prequel to Agatha-finalist Granger's Not All Tarts Are Apple
and The Widow Ginger
follows the post-WWII adventures of Zelda Fluck and her neighbors in Paradise Gardens, a section of Hackney in London's East End. Peace has just broken out and the blitzkrieg has ceased, but Zelda and her large working-class family are confronted with food shortages, bombed-out buildings and the camaraderie and scheming that hard times bring. "Ma" Hole and her son are engaged in their customary crime spree. Someone is stealing petrol. And Zinnia Makepeace, the mysterious healer, is being threatened, her house burgled and cats stolen. Worst of all, Charlie, Zelda's abusive husband, is due home from the army. Readers won't find a major crime in these pages, but they will find a wealth of vivid, likable characters in a fully realized world that casts a bewitching spell. And Granger gets the atmosphere of 1940s London just right, down to the fish-paste sandwiches and the seamed "nylon" stockings women drew onto their legs. Gradually, Zelda forges a life beyond the restrictions of Paradise Gardens, moving to bohemian Soho, where her talented nephew Tony takes voice lessons. This charming and enticing novel stops just shy of becoming too sentimental: it's a kind of time machine to what London life could or should have been. Agent, McIntosh & Otis. (Jan. 10)
