By Shaina Steinberg
My mother was born in 1948. Looking back at the photos and advertisements from her youth, you would never know less than three years before she arrived, Europe was engulfed by a brutal, bloody war that spared neither soldier nor civilian. Even those in the relative safety of America were fighting their own battles. Yet somehow, after the treaty was signed, everyone was supposed to pretend their scars no longer existed and look ahead to a bright, shiny future.
That’s not quite how humans work. Our experiences define us and our history rarely stays neatly in the past. When I set out to write An Unquiet Peace I was interested in the way that my characters, many of whom worked as spies during the war, returned home as changed people. For some, it gave them close bonds with those they served beside. For other, their actions haunted them as a daily torment. And others felt the stinging betrayal of promises broken.
In each of these post-war mysteries, the characters discover the war has followed them home. There can be no moving forward until the past is laid to rest.
The White Lady– Jacqueline Winspear
When she was only twelve years old, Elinor White began her career as a spy back in Belgium during World War One. Her formative memories are having to choose between being predator or prey. The skills she honed proved useful when she went back to work for the British Government during World War Two. It’s now 1947 and Elinor is living in the countryside, scarred by her mistakes and regrets of all that happened during the war. She keeps to herself until she notices her neighbors, a family with a young child, are caught up in a mob scheme bigger than themselves. Elinor puts her training to work to help this family get free. Along the way, she starts to heal her own wounds.
The Final Solution– By Michael Chabon
As always, Michael Chabon’s writing is brilliant and lyrical, yet this is not a typical mystery. While a man is killed, the case revolves around the theft of a parrot, who is usually perched on the shoulder of a young, mute, Jewish orphan from Nazi Germany. No one specifically says what happened to the boy’s parents, but it is not hard to guess. The parrot is this child’s only friend, often singing to him or reciting poetry, but also repeating a series of numbers. The tragedy of the bird’s disappearance is felt in the aching loneliness of the boy. His silence only hints at the horrors of what he has seen.
An old man, who is strongly suggested to be a retired Sherlock Holmes, agrees to look for the parrot. Should he happen to find who murdered the man, that would be fine, as well. Everyone from spies to the local rector has a theory of what the bird’s numbers mean. Some believe it is train numbers others believe it is a secret code. Finding the parrot is about more than just unraveling this mystery. It is about returning a loved one to a child who has already lost so much.
The Shadow of the Wind– Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Six years after her death, Daniel Sempre wakes up one morning to realize he has forgotten his mother’s face. It is a breathtakingly painful moment. To help soothe his son, Daniel’s father takes him to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where books, doomed to be forgotten, are collected until they can find a new reader. Daniel is allowed to choose one book- The Shadow of The Wind, by Julián Carax- to bring home with him. After devouring the book, Daniel becomes obsessed with tracking down other books by this author, and when that fails, he attempts to discover more about the author himself. This is a story filled with twists and turns, spanning several years and growing much larger than Daniel ever expected.
Though the book is set in 1945, the war that hangs over this book is the Spanish Civil War. In the first pages Daniel is told that the book was first printed in France because of “times like these.” It’s a nod towards the fascism that would soon consume Europe. The after effects of the war is seen in the character of Fermin the haunted, former spy who was imprisoned and tortured in Montjuic Castle. It is impossible not to miss the parallels of the devastation of World War Two. Like Daniel, so many children lost their parents. Like the missing book, so much art and culture were destroyed. Like Fermin, many people suffered for their bravery and their patriotism. Even as Daniel grows older and unravels the mystery of this book, the horrors of war linger everywhere.
Evergreen– Naomi Hirahara
The follow-up to Naomi Hirahara’s brilliant Clark and Division, Evergreen continues Aki (neé Ito) Nakasone’s story. Aki and her family returned to Los Angeles, after being forced into internment camps. While somewhere able to find housing, many people were forced into camps located in Burbank. They were dirty, crime-ridden places, that proved hard to leave with the shortage of affordable housing.
Aki is working as a nurse’s aide when an old man, who has been badly beaten, is brought into the hospital. To Aki’s surprise, he is the father of her husband’s best friend, Babe, from the war. She cannot help but suspect him of elder abuse. When the old man killed a few days later and Babe goes missing, Aki is determined to unravel this mystery. The bond Aki’s husband developed with Babe while serving as soldiers in the 442nd is something Aki cannot understand. It makes her realize how much she still has to learn about her husband. They got married during the war and are only now living together for the first time.
Aki’s quest to find the killer reunites her with old friends from Chicago as she navigates Los Angeles from Pasadena to Little Tokyo, in search of answers.
A German Requiem by Philip Kerr
Set in post-war Berlin and Vienna, Kerr does an incredible job of making this time period come alive, with all its inherent dangers and double-dealings. Bernie Gunther, the former police man last seen in 1938 in The Pale Criminal, has endured the war, stood up to the SS, gotten captured by the Russians and put into a POW camp. He is now home with his wife, who makes certain sacrifices to keep them fed, while he sews razor blades into his jacket to avoid casually being killed for his watch. The city is a grim, gritty place.
Bernie, feeling especially low, is hired to prove his former co-worker Emil Becker innocent of killing an American soldier. The offer includes a sizeable paycheck and a temporary escape to Vienna. Nothing is as it seems while the Americans and the Russians vie for supremacy in both Austria and the whole of Europe. People with competing agencies and various motives keep Bernie guessing as more and more people die.
Author of the Bishop & Gallagher mystery series, Shaina Steinberg wrote the well-reviewed mystery Under The Paper Moon. Her new book An Unquiet Peace will be released on April 29th, 2025. She is also a screenwriter and her movie Bride Hard, starring Rebel Wilson, will be in theaters later this year. Shaina lives in Los Angeles.
Discover more mystery deep dives on The Strand Magazine here.