Winter's Exile by James Philip (2015) narrated by Melanie Fraser (2017)

Publisher's Information

Winter’s Exile is the third full length Guy Winter mystery. It is set in England in the Second World War at the time of the London Blitz in October 1940.

In Winter’s Exile we find the Mystery Man in classic whodunit territory.

In Winter's Exile the Mystery Man is ‘exiled’ to the country to recover and recuperate from his injuries. Inevitably, there is no escaping the war. When the son of the local Squire is found dying within hours of a German bomber crashing in a nearby field Guy Winter is suddenly back in his element.

However, what initially looks to be a an open and shut, tame whodunit, soon takes on new and sinister proportions as the Mystery Man finds himself in the middle of what seems like a long-running family feud in a rural backwater that, despite appearances, is anything but divorced from the brutal realities of the war.

In Winter's Exile the Mystery Man is ‘exiled’ to the country to recover and recuperate from his injuries. Inevitably, there is no escaping the war. When the son of the local Squire is found dying within hours of a German bomber crashing in a nearby field Guy Winter is suddenly back in his element.

However, what initially looks to be a an open and shut, tame whodunit, soon takes on new and sinister proportions as the Mystery Man finds himself in the middle of what seems like a long-running family feud in a rural backwater that, despite appearances, is anything but divorced from the brutal realities of the war.


Review 

What I enjoyed most about this story was that we got to see more of Guy Winter as the family man and not just the Mystery Man. I feel that he has grown as a character and for me he is much more likeable in this book.  

I enjoyed the role his daughter played in this story. She played a key role in the investigations and kept a cool head in difficult situations. 
Her involvement marks a shift in the way women have typically contributed to Guy Winter's investigations. Up to this point women within Guy's world have chiefly been useful for sex. Their role amounted to reporting back intelligence gleaned from pillow talk with the men they had been sent out to spy on. 

I love historical fiction and the fact that this series is set during the second World War makes it much more interesting. It is the perfect backdrop for the spying game and an endless source of suspense and intrigue.

Purchase Links Audible  Amazon UK