The books in this series are hard to describe.  They're both a tiny bit twee and interesting studies of small-town America during WWII.  I pick one up every once in awhile when I'm jonesing for a Homefront setting.

The mystery should have been better for me; it had the right elements: reclusive artist murdered, and paintings gone missing, but it just failed to hook me.  I love the characters though (except Miss Dimple; she's a little too Mary Poppins for me to really like her); Charlie, Annie, Virginia... they're all of their time and fun to read about.   And I really appreciated Ballard's choice of innocent suspect:  a Japanese American woman freshly graduated from medical school, forced to hide after her family in California is sent to a 'relocation camp'; she was acting as the artists companion/nurse when the murder occurred.  Ballard uses the story to spotlight the horrible situation these American citizens found themselves in because of their heritage, something I don't see written about very much. 

Generally, not a bad book; I enjoyed it enough, but I didn't love it.