Historian Lainie Anderson’s debut crime novel, The Death of Dora Black, not only spun readers back in time to Adelaide during the First World War, but also introduced the pioneering female police officer Kate Cocks. In her real life, as a Jujitsu practitioner, and a teetotaller, Cocks was also astute, and had plenty of empathy to boot. In novel form, Anderson is able to expand on her own knowledge of Cocks and bring this formidable woman to life in these whodunnits. Whodunnits, plural – because the second instalment is here. As they were in the first book, Anderson’s descriptions of central Adelaide in 1916 are vivid. You can almost hear the hustle and bustle of people going about their day, and the clatter of the trams as they trundled throughout the city and into the suburbs. (Yes, Adelaide was full of them back then!)

Set some six months after the solving of the Dora Black case, this new book sees Kate and her equally capable offsider, Ethel, delving into a murder at the Art Gallery. The body is found at the base of a particularly controversial painting – controversial for the artist’s depiction of a naked woman and the derision it casts towards the UK establishment.

This time, Ethel’s family connections thrust her into the ‘point’ position of the investigation, while Kate is pulled into a dark plot involving the poster bloke for the war movement. It’s so refreshing having these women cast as the lead characters. Anderson does a terrific job keeping the plots propulsive and engaging, leaving you to absorb by osmosis the historical facts peppered throughout. These books are such fun, and perfect for anyone who loved Sulari Gentill’s Rowland Sinclair series, or Robert Gott’s William Power and Titus Lambert books.