Author: Avonna

Book Description

Algiers, North Africa, 1943. After her abusive German husband left her for dead and took their daughter with him behind enemy lines, Dottie Lincoln learned that it’s better to be a trained soldier rather than a victim. As a newly minted squad leader in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, she spends her days moving men and materials to the front and her nights attending mandatory dances to boost the morale of the men. Despite the grueling nature of her job, she has found a sanctuary amongst the women in the Army. When Ruth, a member of her squad, is murdered, she’s devastated and determined to get to the bottom of the murder. 

Dottie’s company is the first group of American women assigned to a combat theater, and with Ruth’s death, the entire operation is being questioned. Determined to do everything she can to help win the war, bring justice to her friend, and hopefully reunite with her daughter, Dottie must rise to the occasion before the killer strikes again. 

But when her past comes back to haunt her, Dottie must prove she’s not a German spy and put a stop to a deadly conspiracy that threatens the entire American war effort.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Murder In the Ranks by Kristi Jones is her debut mystery filled with spies, murder, and a touch of romance. It is also a historical novel that delves into the American Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) where women served in a combat zone in Algiers. Their duties were of the administrative nature, mainly typists, drivers, translators, and switchboard operators freeing up more men to fight. The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was renamed from WAACs to WACs, without “auxiliary” in the name.

The plot features Dottie Lincoln, who decided to join the WAAC after her abusive German husband left her for dead and took their daughter with him behind enemy lines when he joined the Nazis. Dottie Lincoln learned that it’s better to be a trained soldier rather than a victim.

Risking her own reputation, as a WAAC squad leader in World War II she becomes an investigator when one of the women in her unit is found dead. WAAC Ruth Wentz is found sprawled on the pavement in a pool of her own blood. Army officers speculate the incident was a suicide, but Dottie believes Ruth was murdered. She convinces MP Captain Devlin to look at the evidence and investigate. Secrets, deception, black market, bribery and blackmail all prevail as the investigation proceeds including Dottie’s past that comes to haunt her.

This mystery has multiple suspects with lots of twists, keeping readers guessing to the very end. Those reading this debut novel will welcome more books in this series.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Kristi Jones: I have always been interested in history and grew up as a military brat.  I read Eisenhower’s Crusade in Europe where he mentioned a consignment of WACs assigned to his headquarters.  I contacted the US Army Women’s Museum that had a lot of information about the 149^th Post Headquarters.  I did research in their archives in Virginia.  I wanted to write a story about these women.  I wrote my first murder mystery using these women as inspiration. Also, I was in Turkey for several years when my dad was stationed there.  This helped me to write the setting of Algiers where the first women WACs were stationed.

EC: What was true?

KJ:  The murder was pure fiction.  But when the WACs arrived there, they were posted all over different sections. They were assigned to military police, they did office work, became drivers, and worked in signal communication.  As in the book, there were officers that pushed back in having the women work in their offices, as well as officers inviting and helpful. The male soldiers in the book as in real-life reacted towards the WACs. Some saw them as dates and moral boosters. Some became jealous when the WAC women fraternized with the male British officers. Some saw the WACs as not lady-like. The women had to overcome this challenge of how the men responded to them.

EC:  Do you think they broke the “glass ceiling”?

KJ: These women were pioneers, the first women stationed in a combat situation. They were considered a “test-tube company” because people wondered if they could withstand the rigors of being in a combat theatre, including under bombardment. As the war progressed, they proved themselves to do the job. 

EC: How would you describe Dottie?

KJ: She is sometimes embarrassed.  She speaks French and German so she can be useful to the allied cause.  Dottie is protective, gutsy, and was abused.  Her husband saw her as weak and vulnerable, beat and abandoned her. Her backstory is that her husband went to fight for the Nazis and took their daughter, Sophie.  Throughout the series there will be the theme of a mouse to lion, where she must find her strength. She represents those real women who joined the WACs to find independence and to become a force to reckon with.

EC: What is the role of her daughter and her husband?

KJ: They were why she initially joined the military. Dottie struggles to believe in herself and needs to find her emotional and physical strength. In future books she wants to win the war to find her daughter.

EC:  How would you describe Captain Devlin?

KJ: He is cocky with cop-like instincts and can be calm, caring.

EC: What about the other women WACs?

KJ: I wanted to give them each a different personality. Each of the characters were based on differences of women I researched.

Sue is calculating, sly, argumentative, troublesome, and likes to play games. There were WACs that did steal for the black-market. She is a scandal girl.

Ruth is the consummate solider, determined, serious, dependable, rational, and grounded.

Jeannie is scared, trusting, and sweet.  Dottie does trust her.

Mary is the youngest, dramatic, selfish, childish, and acts princess-like. She is young and looking for adventure.

EC:  What did you want readers to get out of the book?

KJ:  This book quote, summarizes my feelings, “I hope Dottie’s story will illuminate their sacrifices, courage, and the critical role played in the combat theatres during World War II.” Plus, to inform people who did not know how severe the manpower shortage was in the services at that time. Recruiting these women would fill the non-combat roles to free the men to fight in combat.

EC: Next book?

KJ: Jeannie will be back and becomes Dottie’s side-kick character. It is tentatively titled A Map to Murder. After working with Military Police to solve the murder of her fellow soldier, in this book, Auxiliary Dottie Lincoln wanted to get a permanent assignment with Captain Devlin and the MPs. Instead, she is sent to work for Force 141, a top-secret planning headquarters just outside the city. She soon finds herself drawn into a web of secrecy, betrayals and murder, racing to root out a traitor before an innocent woman is hanged for a crime she did not commit.

THANK YOU!!

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