With Our Blessing: An Inspector Tom Reynolds Mystery

With Our Blessing is a wonderfully written novel by Jo Spain. Spain’s attention to detail when describing the laundries and what the girls went through while they were held there is enough to make a person’s heart drop. It is just so sad knowing that these were real and that pregnant girls or girls who were acting up were taken to these laundries and so horribly abused and having their babies taken away. With Our Blessing is the mystery that punishes the perpetrators, killing them off one by one. Inspector Tom Reynolds and his crew do a fantastic job of unraveling each character one at a time through interviews and observation. Once you think you know who is committing the murders, all of a sudden more evidence is revealed to prove you wrong. Ironically, Tom’s teenage daughter, Maria, is also pregnant, and Tom thinks to himself what would have happened if his daughter was sent to one of these laundries. I think this idea really drives Tom to work harder on the case and crack down on even the nicest of nuns.

With Our Blessing is a fantastically written thriller with a twist at the end, which the reader will never guess. It is both engaging and so very satisfying, to say the least.