Welcome back all! It’s my turn on the Bookouture Books – On – Tour for A Body at The Dance Hall by Marty Wingate. Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley.
1922. Amateur sleuth Mabel Canning is surrounded by the bright lights of London as she chaperones a young American woman to a dance. But when someone is murdered, a deadly tango begins…
Meet plucky woman-about-town Mabel Canning, leader of the London Ladies’ Murder Club and trusted assistant to gentlewomen. When she is tasked with accompanying Roxy, a fun-loving heiress, on a glamorous night out, Mabel can’t wait to sip champagne and practice the foxtrot. But just as Roxy sashays out of sight, a mysterious man warns Mabel that the feisty young redhead is in danger. And someone is dead before the music stops…
Roxy was the last person to see the victim alive, and she stumbles into Mabel’s arms with her daffodil-yellow dress splashed with blood. Determined to protect her ward, Mabel gathers her dashing beau Winstone and her pals from the murder club. Together they trace the weapon back to the ballroom, but when its twin goes missing, it is clear time is running out to prevent another murder on the dance floor…
The police conclude the killer is in Roxy’s family, but Mabel finds herself spinning between a motley troupe of suspects. Mr Bryars, the anxious ballroom manager, is constantly tripping over himself to hide his secrets. But would he kill to protect his reputation? And young Ned Kettle may have looked dashing while waltzing around with Roxy, but he was once a notorious thief. Is the sticky-fingered rogue also a dab hand at murder?
Just as Mabel and her murder club friends quickstep closer to the truth, Roxy is kidnapped, and Mabel comes cheek to cheek with the killer. Can she save poor Roxy and herself? Or has she danced her last dance?
My Review
Marty Wingate is a brand new author to me, so I had no idea how much I would enjoy this book. To be honest, it’s a historical cosy mystery, so I am at least 95% guaranteed to enjoy it!
This is the third book in the London Ladies’ Murder Club series. I haven’t read the previous books, but this can definitely be read as a standalone. I do prefer to read a series from the start just because I think the character development brings me right into their worlds.
Set in 1920s London. Mabel is a young woman who isn’t a run of the mill female of the times. She lives in her own London flat and works for the Useful Women’s Agency. The type of jobs she could get vary, but they revolve around helping people, in one capacity or another.
She is given the job of escorting Roxanne, the strong minded daughter of an American businessman who is visiting London. Roxanne wishes to go to the dance hall so Mabel takes her. The only problem is the appearance of a dead body on the dance floor. Mabel starts investigating with help from people in her friendship circle.
A very well written cosy mystery that gives a strong sense of place and time. I felt I had armchair travelled back to the roaring 1920s. Mabel is a great, strong main character. I could imagine her bucking all the trends of the time at every point in her life. The ensuing investigation showed just how able this woman was!
For a cosy mystery, Marty Wingate has not just taken me back to the 20s. She also brought the suspense, and this made for a great mystery read, too. I’m almost upset that I missed the other books in this series! I am planning to rectify my error as soon as I can. It’s a great read for histotical cosy mystery fans out there.
published by Bookouture and available here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CQ3ZXYGK?tag=soc-med-21&geniuslink=true
Author Bio
USA Today best-selling author Marty Wingate shares her love of Britain in three mystery series.
The First Edition Library mysteries (Berkley) are set in the lovely Georgian spa town of Bath. Here we find Hayley Burke, curator of an impressive collection of books from the Golden Age of Mystery—Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and all the rest. Too bad Hayley has never read a detective story in her life. In book one, The Bodies in the Library, she attempts to bluff her way along when a member of a local fan-fiction writers group turns up dead—in her library. In book two, Murder Is a Must (October 2020), Hayley plans an ambitious spring exhibition and with luck finds the best venue and the best—if the most difficult—manager to put it on. Then, said manager is found dead at the bottom of a spiral staircase.
Marty’s first historical fiction book, Glamour Girls (Alcove Press, January 2021) is set against the backdrop of the Second World War in England and follows the story of Rosalie Wright as she goes from farm girl to Spitfire pilot.
Marty also write two further mystery series. The Potting Shed books feature Pru Parke, a middle-aged American gardener transplanted from Texas to England—in the latest, Midsummer Mayhem, Pru finds herself up to her ears in murder and Shakespeare, as she builds the set for an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Also, look for the short story Christmas at Greenoak. The Birds of a Feather mysteries follow Julia Lanchester, bird lover, who runs a tourist office in a Suffolk village—in book four, Farewell, My Cuckoo, Julia attempts to identify a murder victim found at the edge of the village while doing battle with her boyfriend’s sister, who has made herself entirely too at home in Julia’s cottage.
Marty lives with her husband and two cats near Seattle, her local library standing in for a more colorful writing venue—say, Vita Sackville-West’s tower at Sissinghurst. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Crime Writers Association (Britain) as well as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Royal Horticultural Society. She has her own modest vintage collection of books from the Golden Age writers.
Marty takes research seriously—she is a former how-to garden writer of three books and a countless number (at least, she stopped counting ages ago) of magazine and newspaper articles on everything from apple maggot to the prettiest daffodils and the best-smelling roses. Research took on an entirely new light when she began writing mysteries, and now she and her husband travel regularly to England and Scotland, where she plunges deeply into study concerning the next adventure for Hayley, Julia, or Pru—sparing not a few minutes a day to head to the pub.
sharonbeyondthebooks.uk 