The Physicists’ Daughter: A Novel
Historical Fiction
Poisoned Pen Press (June 7, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages

Synopsis

The Nazis are no match for the physicists’ daughter.

New Orleans, 1944

Sabotage. That’s the word on factory worker Justine Byrne’s mind as she is repeatedly called to weld machine parts that keep failing with no clear cause. Could someone inside the secretive Carbon Division be deliberately undermining the factory’s war efforts? Raised by her late parents to think logically, she also can’t help wondering just what the oddly shaped carbon gadgets she assembles day after day have to do with the boats the factory builds…

When a crane inexplicably crashes to the factory floor, leaving a woman dead, Justine can no longer ignore her nagging fear that German spies are at work within the building, trying to put the factory and its workers out of commission. Unable to trust anyone—not the charming men vying for her attention, not her unpleasant boss, and not even the women who work beside her—Justine draws on the legacy of her unconventional upbringing to keep her division running and protect her coworkers, her country, and herself from a war that is suddenly very close to home.

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Review

While I love math, sometimes science was beyond me. I didn’t let that stop me from picking up this book and enjoying the heck out of it! Justine is a formidable character with her intellect and past experiences. She was raised well by her physicist parents and godmother. She has a keen curiosity and doesn’t stop when confronted with a puzzle. However, her parents were killed in an automobile accident and she has been on her own for a few years now. Since it is the WWII era, she is working in a factory on an assembly line but is able to do some welding when the machines break down. What she discovers is that it isn’t normal wear and tear but someone is trying to sabotage the plant.

Justine has never been one to make a lot of friends, but she befriends another woman at the plant, Georgette, who happens to also live in the same rooming house. Georgette may be from the bayou and not gotten past the eighth grade, but she has a thirst for knowledge and laps up the algebra homework Justine assigns her and reads science books until she understands the basics. Georgette helps Justine with normal interactions with others which can be a bit awkward for Justine.

There is also Justine’s godmother, Gloria, who is an intellect in her own respect but she sees conspiracies all around her. She won’t leave her house in fear that someone will come in and bug it and spy on her. But she has a heart of gold and helps Justine however she can in her quest for what the plant is manufacturing and what it could mean for the war efforts.

There are two mysterious characters, Fitz and Mudcat. What we know about them is that they are both trying to recruit Justine to work for their governments…but what governments do they represent? Are they good or bad guys? We know that one of them is from Germany so we have to assume he is trying to recruit her for his benefit and not her own. We are even told that he has convinced someone else in her department to assist him in gaining information and knowledge about what the plant is producing. We don’t know who this person is until near the end and I never would have suspected this character. As the truth unfolds it surprised me because it was not what I was suspecting and a few incidents led me down another path which was a dead end.

This was quite an enjoyable book from the math and science, social interactions, secrecy, and even perhaps a little paranoia kept the story moving forward and interesting. There are even some potential romantic situations and I loved the scenes in the dance club and could picture the club in my mind.

I am thrilled that there is going to be a follow-up book considering how it ended and can’t wait to read that one when it debuts.

We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Author

Mary Anna Evans is the author of The Physicists’ Daughter, the first in her series of WWII-era historical suspense novels featuring Rosie-the-Riveter-turned-codebreaker Justine Byrne. Her thirteen Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries have received recognition including the Benjamin Franklin Award, a Will Rogers Medallion Award Gold Medal, the Oklahoma Book Award, and three Florida Book Awards bronze medals. She is an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches fiction and nonfiction writing, including mystery and suspense writing. Her work has appeared in publications including Plots with Guns, The Atlantic, Florida Heat Wave, Dallas Morning News, and The Louisville Review. Her scholarship on crime fiction, which centers on Agatha Christie’s evolving approach over her long career to the ways women experienced justice in the twentieth century, has appeared in the Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie (coming September 22, 2022), which she co-edited, and in Clues: A Journal of Detection. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers-Camden, and she is a licensed Professional Engineer. She is at work on the second Justine Byrne novel, The Physicists’ Enigma.

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