The Silent Film Star Murders by Melodie Campbell

 

This brand new traditional mystery from accomplished Canadian crime writer Melodie Campbell has all the panache of the original Golden Age crime fiction by notables Dorothy, L Sayers, Margery Allingham, and the inimitable Agatha Christie herself. In fact, several of those names are dropped by our illustrious sleuth, Lady Revelstoke as she cruises the high seas, partaking of delicious desserts in the First Class Dining Room.

Lady Revelstoke is no lady. She’s from the colonies, from a crime family (but that's a secret!) and widowed too soon after the Great War, left with a young son and a slew of business holdings as well as that convenient title. (And a castle, but we don’t see the castle in this book, it being inconvenient to pack and transport even on a grand ocean liner). 

 

In this second of The Merry Widow Murders from Cormorant, our Lady Detective is not even settled into her cabin yet when she realizes that she will have a famous silent film star as a dining companion at the captains table, along with the star’s current husband and mousy younger sister. They’ve barely left England when the first mystery of many pops up. Soon we are up to our ears in rival starlets, old flames and new, mysterious disappearances, and an inexhaustible stream of clues that seem to lead in too many directions.

Sorting out the real from the smoke and mirrors is a full-time job for Lady Revelstoke and her indomitable maid Elfreda. But they are more than up to the task, and Lady R makes good work of connecting with other bereaved wives and mothers, gaining vital clues along the way. 

 

In addition to the well woven shipboard background and the many discreet background references to the culture of the era, our illustrious sleuth, and her female, secondary characters, make clear the struggles and hopes of women who saw the Great War not only as a terrible tragedy, but as a step forward in the liberation of women, not only in work and family, but in politics and society. There is something bittersweet about their hopes, as here we are nearly 100 years after the fictional events of this book, and women are still struggling to keep the rights so long and hard fought for.

All in all, this is a very pleasant and also thought-provoking traditional mystery of an era long past, that will satisfy any weekend reader's murderous impulses.

#MerryWidowMurders #TraditionalMystery #CosyMystery #GoldenAge #OceanLiner #starlets #Hollywood #SilentFilm #talkies #CormorantBooks #GreatWar 

A Queer Case from 1929

A Queer Case 
by Robert Holtom 

It's 1929 and almost the Golden Age of the English murder mystery when bank clerk and would-be bon vivant Selby Bigge is out prowling Hampstead Heath in search of brief, illicit human connection when he bumps into an old flame from his university days. Well, not so much an old flame as a brief flicker of connection/affection/prospective amour at the end of a drunken night among fellow undergraduate academics. When Patrick, that well-dressed scion of a recently knighted sire, invites him for a meal at The Ritz, Selby's hopes rise for a rekindling.

Except this evening turns out to be a family dinner with the knight and his new wife, a lady much nearer Patrick's age than his father's. It soon becomes apparent that all is not well in that family circle. And, to further deepen the familiar trope, Selby is invited to the knight's upcoming birthday dinner at his relatively isolated manor on the far side of Hampstead Heath. 

 

Any reader of a Golden Age mystery knows what happens next.

This is very much a classic murder mystery, except that it's set amid the very real perils of being homosexual in the England of (barely) yesteryear, where the wrong glance or word at the wrong time or place could bring unwanted attention from the ever-vigilant police and public anti-sodomy brigade. Being caught in a compromising position with another man, even in the privacy of his own home, could cost cost Selby his freedom, his reputation, his job, and possibly his ability to live in England without being hounded everywhere. And yet he yearns for another kiss from his longtime crush. And so he agrees to help when Patrick falls under suspicion.

 

The subsequent investigation takes Selby through various London underground clubs and furthers his acquaintance with a cross-dressing baronet‘s daughter, Theo, who also wants to solve the murder. Tension is inevitable as Selby juggles and conceals his intermittent contacts with other gay men. There are some sage and essentially timeless observations about life and relationships, and especially marriage, from several angles of LGBTQ+ life experience. There's an homage to one of Agatha Christie's lesser sleuths, Ariadne Oliver, in the prolific if not, highly respected, crime writer who thinks Agatha Christie is stealing her plots. Any violence is constrained in true traditional crime novel style, and the solution owes more to careful thought and deduction than to anything so sensationalist as a climactic action scene.

All in all, a lot to enjoy, and ideal timing for its release at the start of Pride Month across North America. 

Thanks #NetGalley
#LGBTQ #murder #GoldenAge #murdermystery #HampsteadHeath #stepmother #knight #crossdressing #1920s #RoaringTwenties #detective #aqueercase #SelbyBiggeMystery