The War Widow

According to esteemed author Robert Rankin there are only ever three locations in a Private Investigator novel. A bar, the alley behind the bar and a rooftop to have the final showdown on. Billie Walker is no normal PI, she is not an investigator, but an Inquirer. She goes as far as to say that her life if not like the PI films popular in the 1940s, but when a boy goes missing and Billie is put on the case, we get the bar and the alleyway, and a whole lot more. 

Billie Walker finds herself back in Australia after the war having spent the last few years covering Europe as a journalist with her now missing, presumed dead, husband. With the men returning from the front being given priority in the workplace, Billie decides to take over her late father’s Private Inquiry firm. Her latest case is about a missing person, but when she is threatened to stay away, it appears that the case is deeper than first thought. An Auction House and a dead body come into play. 

Tara Moss’ The War Widow sets out to separate itself from the stereotypes of the PI genre, even getting the character to say that it is not like the Philip Marlowe films. It is different in many ways. The location of 1946 Australia is interesting and having a widow as the protagonist gives the genre a unique perspective. Moss uses the character and the location to shape the story. What was happening in Australia in 1946, how would a widow feel working as a PI in a world that catered for men? 

There are countless fans of the PI genre, because they are so thrilling, and Moss realises this as the book does still cater to many tropes of the genre. The tortured protagonist. In this case Billie has no substance abuse problems but does have the post-traumatic stress of seeing the war in Europe up close and losing her husband. For the book to have been really removed from your typical PI genre novel, Moss would have had to go out in a different direction. Widow embraces the twists, turns, and thrills that make a great noir. 

I enjoyed Widow because it is a book that never forgets to cater for the setting. It is set in 1946 and feels like it. Billie may seem like a modern woman to the reader, but she is trapped in a world that is not ready for her. The reason that the book slips into pulp noir is because it goes for histories heavy hits. 1946 – what criminals could be making their way to Australia at that time? As a crime narrative, I was able to work out the direction it was going, but still had a fun time at the reveal and subsequent action sequences. 

Moss does not forget to link in Australia’s own history and has a second storyline about her Aboriginal Australian friend. Moss ties in real history into the story, explaining to the reader how Aboriginal Australian children were taken from their homes and put in schools. Moss also explores moments in the war, from battles on the frontline to the Ghettos. This background gives the story more impact as you know what the characters have gone through to get even this far. 

As a fan of Private Investigator novels and noir, I am happy to say that Widow is exactly this. It may have a female protagonist and Australian setting, but its bones are in the noir world. Fans of the genre will take to the book but may feel like they have seen aspects before. The book will appeal more to the crime fan who dabbles in noir. Moss fleshes out the history and characters more than most pulp fiction, giving the book that modern feel. This feels like the first part in a series of books that will happily be adapted for an Australian TV show in the future.