The date is 1969 and the Moon landing has just successfully occurred. Austin and her husband David are both students; in David's case he is avoiding the Vietnam draft. Bob Dylan is playing on the radio, and at Woodstock. Against this backdrop, the poisoning of one student in a chemistry lab, Shona, seems a minor issue; probably accidental, Austin tells herself. Larissa is delighted to see Austin and her little boy Wyatt in Vancouver. Larissa's father, Professor Klimenko, a Russian lecturer, is also pleased, though Austin claims she is only there to provide moral support.

The setting is well realised with frequent intervals of rain in Vancouver, IBM typewriters, and a newly released book called THE EDIBLE WOMAN by Margaret Atwood. Some men in science believe women have no place in a lab - unless they are typing or making tea. This seems like a century away from modern life, with women PhDs in The Big Bang Theory, but as someone who has worked in more than one male- dominated job I can assure today's graduates that the change happened fast.

Some of the young men in Shona's lab felt threatened by an intelligent woman in their midst, and putting down her ideas was just one way they expressed their inadequacy. But that's not a motive to murder the woman, is it? The wide variety of women at the liberation meeting astonishes even well-travelled Austin. Could one of them have had a personal issue with the dead woman? And then a second death occurs - coincidence?

Writing this from the point of view of a devoted wife and mother is deliciously ironic, so Kay Kendall has clearly put a great deal of thought into her creation. With both Russian and Jewish families included, the story feels well- rounded. Kendall lives in Texas and has brought her varied characters strongly to life in RAINY DAY WOMEN. Read this smart, stinging mystery for both crime and background, as it reminds us that the times they were a'changing.

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