War Damage is set in the early Fifties, at a time when Britain was still slowly recovering from the war, and indeed, when there are still many wrecked buildings in London.  Regine Milner holds Sunday afternoon parties at her Hampstead home, which are attended by the cultural elite of London.  Nobody too famous mind, apart from a ballerina, and a government minister simultaneously embroiled in the Sidney Stanley affair and an illicit romantic liaison.  However, Reggie’s glamorous (yet austere) world is shaken up by the murder of her gay friend, Freddie Buckingham, on Hampstead Heath.  At first everyone presumes that this is a result of a robbery, or due to Freddie having tried to solicit the wrong man.  And yet the last thing Freddie had said to Reggie was that he needed to talk to her urgently about someone they both knew… Neville, Regine’s husband, is reticent about the fact that he saw Freddie not long before his death, and he’s someone who’s into some very kinky sex…  Meanwhile, Reggie’s desires very much focus on the teenaged Charles Hallam, who appears to have been Freddie’s protégé, while the young police detective Murray desires Reggie in turn.  Reggie fears that Freddie’s death will lead to a scandal, as there’s a danger that his address book, containing the details of his prominent gay friends, could end up in the hands of the police, and thus lead to prosecutions in this intolerant era.  There are also some shady Fascists hanging around, the remnants of Oswald Mosley’s mob.  And it’s not long before Reggie discovers that one of the men from her past life in Shanghai is hanging around on the Heath…
Elizabeth Wilson has evidently done a lot of research, as the representation that she provides of Fifties’ Britain is very authentic.  As the above plot summary indicates, there is indeed a lot of shenanigans going on in this world.  However, it could be that, despite the depiction of various sexual peccadilloes, this world could just be too austere.  And although this is a very competently written thriller, I didn’t identify enough with the main characters to really care about what happened to them.