<P><B>From the best-selling author of <I>The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir</I> comes a thrilling new WWII story about a village busybody — the mighty Mrs. Braithwaite — who resolves to find and then rescue her missing daughter.</B></P><P>Mrs. Braithwaite self-appointed queen of her English village finds herself dethroned despised and dismissed following her husband’s selfish divorce petition. Never deterred the threat of a family secret being revealed sets off hot-foot to London to find the only person she has left — her clever daughter Betty who took work there at the first rumbles of war.</P><P>But when she arrives Betty’s landlord the timid Mr. Norris informs her that Betty hasn’t been home in days — with the chaos of the bombs there’s no telling what might have befallen her. Aghast Mrs. Braithwaite sets her bullish determination to the task of finding her only daughter.</P><P>Storming into the London Blitz Mrs. Braithwaite drags the reluctant Mr. Norris along as an unwitting sidekick as they piece together Betty’s unexpectedly chaotic life. As she is thrown into the midst of danger and death Mrs. Braithwaite is forced to rethink her old-fashioned notions of status class and reputation and to reconsider the question that’s been puzzling her since her world overturned: How do you measure the success of your life?</P><P>Listeners will be charmed by the unforgettable Mrs. Braithwaite and her plucky ruthless optimism and find in <I>The Spies of Shilling Lane</I> a novel with surprising twists and turns quiet humor and a poignant examination of mothers and daughters and the secrets we keep.</P>
