“What Child is This” by Rhys Bowen is an Amazon original short story, available only as a Kindle Single. (It is included
in The Kindle Unlimited Program).
The story is set in London during the darkest days of the blitz with the city under nighly attack from German bombers. It is Christmas Eve. We are in apartment of a married couple. The husband is a dock worker, an essential occupation that exempted him from military service. She stays home. Their first and only child, a daughter, died of dipteria a few years ago. Food is very rationed but the husband has brought home a bag of sugar he says found on the docks. An air raid is sounded. The wife hates the shelter and refuses to go. Their street is hit with phosphorus bombs which start fires water cannot essiliy put out. There place is destroyed, including the wages of the husband.
I do not wish to tell to much of the emotion ladden plot. The decide to spend The night in a Park but end up in an abandoned, they think, posh house. They find all sorts of fancy foods but they also find a seven year old boy home alone. His father is in the army in North Africa and his mother went out, she appears to be having an affair, and the boy fears she may have been killed in the bombing raid.
Some very exciting and moving things happen. I enjoyed this story a lot, it showed the spirit of the English.
is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of more than thirty mystery novels, including The Tuscan Child and In Farleigh Field, the winner of the Left Coast Crime Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel and the Agatha Award for Best Historical Novel. Bowen’s work has won sixteen honors to date, including multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. Her books have been translated into many languages, and she has fans around the world, including seventeen thousand Facebook followers. A transplanted Brit, Bowen divides her time between California and Arizona. Visit the author at www.rhysbowen.com.
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