Into the Fire

The second and, unfortunately for now, final book in the Allie Fortune Mystery Series by Sara Mills leaves us at just the place we wanted to be. Finally. And that’s the end.

Miss Match takes Allie Fortune, Private Investigator, and Special Agent Jack O’Connor on a treacherous journey to postwar Berlin in an unlikely liaison to rescue Maggie O’Shayne, Jack’s one true love, after he receives two vague letters pleading for help from the woman who left him behind after his marriage proposal and headed into the military to practice her nursing career.

Able to procure a false passport for Jack as her husband, Allie and Jack head to the remnants of a bombed out Berlin with papers from an adoption ministry to return with eight orphans. The plan comes together fast and loose and extremely dangerous for Jack since if his true identity is discovered, he could be held for treason. Allie initially tries to discourage his determined decision to rescue Maggie, suggesting she might not be the woman he thinks she is, but there will be no denying his departure so Allie puts together the scheme.

An unusual twist involving Allie’s difficult relationship with her mother provides a different peak into her mother’s heart so many years ago in Berlin. Once there we can almost see the broken and erupted concrete streets, the buildings sheered in half—many ready to collapse—the hunger pangs of so many people who stand in line only to find that the available food disappears before they get any, the cold that bites to the bone without the refuge of fireplaces or furnaces.

There’s a surprise waiting with Maggie and a frightening secret which has kept her in hiding. When she must finally reveal the knowledge which has left her a hunted woman, a horrible event causes Jack to form a daring plan which could be fatal to all of them if it doesn’t work. At the conclusion of the plan, Allie separates from them in order to pursue what has held her captive and inert for eight long years.

An inventive story which is told primarily in first person via Allie’s POV, it does shift to give the reader a glimpse of Maggie’s back story, present feelings for Jack, their circumstances, and the permeating fear which surrounds their hopes of escape. Told in a slightly different style than Miss Fortune, the disjointed story and different POVs somehow accentuate the brokenness of lives subjected to the physical and political aspects of war.

Sara’s writing and interesting stories told through her adventurous, gutsy, and devoted private investigator heroine who, like Jack, has never gotten past her first love, certainly deserve an audience. If you enjoy period mysteries with a unique and oddly endearing heroine, please buy these two novels by Sara Mills (Miss Fortune, Miss Match). They’re worthy of shelf space, and it’s disappointing to learn the third novel in the series has not been printed.

Father, I ask for your blessing and protection upon Sara Mills. I pray your comfort and peace in her life. I pray she would feel your strength when hers is spent and exhausted. I pray you would continue to give her stories to tell, hope for the future, and encourage her as only you can do in her darkest hours. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.