B+
Genre: Historical: American, Mystery/Thriller
Archetype: Writer/Author/Librarian
Did you watch the Miss Fisher TV series and long for more of the same? I have something similar that might scratch that same itch: this book!
It’s set in the sweltering summer of 1925 in New York City. It is stiflingly hot and the ceiling fans can only do so much. Meanwhile hemlines continue to rise and bathtub gin is a thing. Freddie, our heroine, has generational wealth but chooses to work as a society and fashion columnist for the newly founded Gotham magazine. Freddie has an assistant with clear ideas of what is and is not appropriate for a single woman, but she nonetheless tends to Freddie’s numerous hangovers.
This is Freddie’s life: glamorous speakeasy, late-night trip to the office to type up her column, fall asleep on the divan in her office, wake up, be tended to by her assistant and then go home and refresh ready for the next night of revelry. Not that Freddie is an airhead: she’s charming and a wit. And she has a clawing hunger to be more than ‘just’ a wife and mother in the suburbs. She’s not opposed to finding a partner, but she wants that person to see her for who she truly is.
That is all disrupted, though, when there’s a murder. She becomes involved in the mystery because she is able to describe the woman that one of the victims was dining with. This isn’t a traditional murder mystery because mostly we’re just following Freddie as she goes about her days. The detective who interviews her unintentionally piques her interest in the case. So Freddie keeps her eyes open and when she does see the woman again…I don’t want to reveal the details but her involvement escalates even though she is only ever pursuing one clue – the identity of that woman.
Overall the mystery is interesting. By the end, there are a lot of loose ends that aren’t tied up. The main question of who is killing the people is answered, but nothing more. There are a few twists in the story that aren’t fully explained, especially towards the end.
And, yes, there are love interests.
First, we have Brandt Abrams, a Yale man turned bootlegger. Their chemistry is electric but he leads a dangerous life and by the end of the book, I’d put them at situationship-level but with the possibility of more.
Towards the end of the book, we are introduced to Parker van Dyne, an agent working for the government. Freddie is suspicious of Parker’s appearance in her life and at the start the two bicker almost immediately. But he’s hot and it has the feeling of the enemies part of “enemies to lovers.” Nothing romantic actually happens between them though.
So a romance this is not. We have no HEA and not even a HFN. At best we have a ‘maybe happy’ ending. It’s not only the mystery that felt incomplete at the end.
Of course, if this is the start of a series, all of the loose ends make for a wonderful set up for many more books to come. I reached out to the publisher and this is indeed the start of a series! I am delighted to share this news with you!
This book features several real-life people: Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Parker, etc. I don’t know enough about these people to know if they’ve been reproduced faithfully, but I do know that something I usually find annoying (real people appearing in fiction) didn’t bother me at all in this instance – perhaps because I know so little about the real people. They were rich, interesting characters in the book.
Overall, this book is sparkling and witty and breezy. There are heavier moments of family conflict, grinding poverty, heartbreak, adultery, death and more, but overall the life that Freddie leads is pretty glamorous. I can’t help but feel this would make a brilliant TV series. The writing itself is very vivid which adds to the impression this would make great TV.
As a series opener, we’re set up for some very interesting reading ahead. Assuming that each book will have its own mystery, it can’t quite be an A because of all those dropped loose ends at the close of the book. Of course if this same mystery continues to unravel in the next book, I might need to review this grade.
I eagerly await the next installment of Freddie’s dazzling life!
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So, anyone who likes this one might like the author’s Country Club Murders series, which is set in Kansas City in the 1970s. There’s an overarching romance arc (the heroine gets involved with, and eventually marries, the homicide detective who keeps getting called in when she finds bodies). There’s the occasional observation about what it’s like to be a divorced woman with ambition at that time, but the books are mostly pretty light.
If you enjoyed the Miss Fisher series, there is also the book series by Kerry Greenwood, which it is based upon.