The Spies of Shilling Lane

I picked up this book not realizing it was written by the of The Chillbury Ladies Choir.   That was a fabulous novel and this new novel does not disappoint.  Jennifer Ryan is a creative and entertaining author.

The Spies of Shilling Lane is a totally unexpected treat.  Written about a time in history that was horrific and troubling, Ryan manages to find humor and love and relationships.  This is really a story about a mother, daughter relationship.  Growing up Phyllis Braithwaite lived under the tyrannical authority of her Aunt, her parents had died when she was six years old.  This had shaped the woman she became.  Not knowing anything different she married and ran her home and raised her daughter with those same principles.  Now her husband has left her and her daughter, with whom her relationship has grown colder and colder over the years, has gone off to London.

When the ladies of the small village she lives in turn their backs on her she goes off to London to find her daughter, Betty.  With a long held family secret to reveal to her daughter, the brusque, determined Mrs. Braithwaite searches out Betty at her home and place of business to find there are more questions than answers. Through a series of mishaps that take Mrs. Braithwaite and Betty's landlord the shy, cowardly, Mr. Norris on a series of adventures involving secrets, danger and death, they search for Betty. 

Writing about London during World War II and the Blitz, Ryan takes the reader into the meetings of fascist sympathizers and into bomb shelters.  She does not compromise the chaos and fear of the war but does create an entertaining and sometimes funny plot to keep the focus in the novel on the mother/ daughter relationship which is really central to the book.  Also the idea that people can change and look at themselves and discover they do not like what they see.

Over and over again Phyllis asks herself, "How do you measure the success of your life?"
When you are living a quiet life in the country you may not question this, but when you are living under constant threat of death you wonder if you are living your best life.

Phyllis says, "If a woman knew the moment of her death, would she live her life any differently? More wisely, undoubtedly.  More frivolously, perhaps.  But would she more full-hearted, less selfish?"

That is the crux of the novel.  Measuring the success of your life, not through hard work, making  money but through relationships, friends and family.  At each step of the way through the danger and chance of dying, the characters weigh their lives and hope to live to have a chance at making the best choices.