Louise's Blunder

September 1, 2014
Period flavor trumps plot in Shaber’s leisurely paced fourth novel of suspense set during WWII (after 2013’s Louise’s Dilemma). Since Louise Pearlie has top secret clearance at her job in the OSS, her superiors assign her to look into the file activity of missing analyst Paul Hughes, an economist who’s an expert on German labor statistics. When Hughes turns up dead in Washington’s Tidal Basin, possibly the victim of drowning, Louise’s curiosity is peaked. Soon, she’s thrust into an investigation by the D.C. police’s Det. Sgt. Harvey Royal, who believes Hughes’s death was no accident. Louise finds that she may be in over her head, and could be the killer’s next victim. Her new friendships and the issues of race and gender inequality lend credence the period atmosphere, but they do little to push along the narrative. Savvy readers will have the mystery figured out in no time. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary Agency.

October 7, 2013
Set in 1943, Shaber’s mild third novel of suspense (after 2012’s Louise’s Gamble) takes widow Louise Pearlie from her desk at the Research and Analysis Branch of the OSS in Washington, D.C., into the field. A censor has relayed to the OSS a postcard with a seemingly innocuous message. Written in English and mailed from occupied France via neutral Lisbon to a man in Maryland, it contains an American place name with a German spelling. Fearing it’s a coded communication, Louise’s bosses order her to take the obvious first step of interviewing the addressee, Leroy Martin, but her clueless and ham-fisted partner, Lt. Arthur Collins, makes her job harder. The inquiry later becomes a murder investigation. Louise is able to thwart a Nazi plot because the bad guy unwisely decides to spare her life. Series fans will appreciate the attention to period detail (e.g., the OSS’s filing system was devised by the Yale scholar who edited Horace Walpole’s letters). Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky Bijur Literary Agency.