Forests of the Night
A Johnny Hawke Novel
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Forests of the Night introduces the intrepid John Hawke, an exciting new detective operating in London during the Blitz.
When World War II breaks out in London, young policeman John Hawke enlists in the army. His dreams of fighting for his country, however, are cut short after he loses an eye in rifle training. Invalided out of the army and offered a desk job with the police, John sets up as a private investigator in London instead, hoping for excitement and danger.
In the autumn of 1940, John is engaged to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman. What is the connection between her brutal murder and the fading film actor Gordon Moore? Johnny also becomes involved in the plight of a runaway boy who may have witnessed something terrible.
Told with wit and humor, while evoking an atmospheric picture of the home front during the dark days of the Second World War, Forests of the Night is an impressive U.S. debut for David Stuart Davies.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Noted Sherlock Holmes expert Davies (Veiled Detective) launches a new series with this competent, if unspectacular whodunit set in WWII London and featuring Johnny Hawke, who has just started a new career as a PI after a misfiring gun cost him his left eye and a career in the army. His caseload is fairly run-of-the-mill until Eric and Freda Palfrey enlist him to trace their missing 27-year-old daughter, Pamela. Hawke soon finds that the plain, middle-class girl had been living a double life, and that her secret role as a high-class prostitute has led to her death, probably at the hands of one of her clients, one of whom is a prominent film star. With its decent atmospherics, this novel compares favorably to John Gardner's WWII Suzie Mountford series (Troubled Midnight, etc.), but Davies's workmanlike prose doesn't match that of Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge series or Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs mysteries.
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