Requiem for a Wren

When Alan Duncan returns after several years in England to his home in Coombargana, Australia, he is faced with an unexpected and unpleasant homecoming - the suicide of his parents' much-loved parlour-maid. At first, Alan suspects murder but when he does a little investigating he unleashes memories of his experiences in England during the war, of his brother Bill's death and above all, of Janet Prentice, Bill's fiancée, a practical yet deeply sensitive girl. In Requiem for a Wren, one of his most moving novels, Nevil Shute tells of love and friendship destroyed by war and suffering.