Another Review
Another lovely review of my latest; this one in Library Review. No wonder my books are always found in public libraries!
Miley, Mary. Murder Off Stage. Severn House. (Roaring Twenties Mystery, Bk. 5). Sept. 2023. 224p. ISBN 9781448311408. $31.99. M
Jessie Beckett is a former Vaudeville performer, now an assistant script girl for Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. When the couple goes to New York for several weeks, Jessie accompanies them. It gives her time to catch up with an old friend, Adele Astaire. She knew Adele and her brother, Freddy, as children on the Vaudeville circuit. Now Adele’s fame opens doors—and nets Jessie second-row tickets to a hot Broadway play, Rules of Engagement. From those seats, Jessie witnesses the play’s leading man, Allen Crenshaw, being shot dead by leading lady Norah Rose, using a stage gun that was loaded with (unbeknownst to Norah, Jessie is certain) real bullets. When detective Benjamin Quinn admits that this is his first murder investigation, Jessie uses his adoration of Adele to inveigle her way into the case. With Adele’s help and her own knowledge of the theater world, Jessie is able to uncover the history of a murder with roots in the past. VERDICT The fifth “Roaring Twenties Mystery,” following Murder in Disguise, is an enjoyable treat with appearances by Pickford, Fairbanks, and Queen Marie of Romania, as well as the Astaires. For fans of earlier books in the series or of Katharine Schellman’s “Nightingale” mysteries, also set in 1920s NYC.—Lesa Holstine
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