Thank you ever so much to the lovely people over at Gallic Books for sending me an ARC of this second book in The Variety Palace Mystery series! I was also lucky enough to be gifted a bonus copy of the first installment in the series (The Tumbling Girl) which I listened to in audiobook format last year!
—Synopsis—
The Variety Palace Music Hall is in trouble, due in no small part to a gruesome spate of murders that unfolded around it a few months previously.
Between writing, managing the music hall and trying to dissuade her boss from installing a water tank in the building, Minnie Ward has her hands full. Her complicated relationship with detective Albert Easterbrook doesn’t even bear thinking about.
But when a performer’s brother mysteriously goes missing, Minnie and Albert are thrown together once more. Then another body is found dead in a trunk, and a strange connection starts to emerge.
The crimes will propel the unlikely duo into the shady world of illegal gambling, dog fighting and monkey kidnappings as they trace things back to a tragedy that took place fourteen years ago, leaving 183 children dead. And given that the incident touched so many people’s lives, everyone is a suspect…
—Review—
I only have one request, and it is pretty simple: please Bridget, we want more and more of Minnie and Albert! What a treat these books are, I cannot recommend them enough!
The writing is simply exquisite, you are transported straight to the Victorian times, you can hear the hooves of the horses and the carriages, you can smell the streets of London, feel the damp and the fog, hear the sounds of the bustling life from those times!
The characters are so deep, so accomplished, you cannot help but get totally immersed in their lives and invested in their fate. Their relationships are complex and engrossing, nothing is out of place, nothing is superflus.
Can they find the culprit before it’s too late? Can Minnie continue to keep the Palace afloat whilst Tansie recuperate? Is she safe? Who can she trust?
The plot is ever so clever, fast paced, twisting and turning, gripping, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.
This is definitely my new favourite crime series, so, dear reader, join me in discovering how Minnie and Albert get to solve this latest streak of murders… To be devoured!
If you haven’t read the first book in the series (The Tumbling Girl); fear not! You won’t get lost, but it is such a shame and in my humble opinion you should remedy this straight away! I’ve popped the synopsis below to tempt you a bite more!
—About The Author—
Bridget Walsh was born in London to Irish immigrant parents. She studied English literature and was an English teacher for 23 years, before leaving the profession to pursue her writing. Bridget lives in Norwich with her husband, Micky, and her two dogs.
The manuscript of Bridget’s debut novel, THE TUMBLING GIRL, written on the MA Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) course at UEA, won the UEA Little, Brown Award for Crime Fiction 2019. She has completed the second title in the Minnie Ward and Albert Easterbrook series, THE INNOCENTS. THE TUMBLING GIRL was published by Gallic Books in May 2023, with THE INNOCENTS to follow in 2024.
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—About The Tumbling Girl (Variety Palace Mysteries 1)—
The first of the sharp, witty Variety Palace Mysteries, THE TUMBLING GIRL sees an unlikely duo team up to solve a grisly spate of murders.
1876, Victorian London. Minnie Ward, a feisty scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall, is devastated when her best friend is found brutally murdered. She enlists the help of boxer-turned-private detective Albert Easterbrook to help her find justice.
Together they navigate London, from its high-class clubs to its murky underbelly. But as the bodies pile up, they must rely on one another if they’re going to track down the killer – and make it out alive . . .
A gripping debut to delight fans of historical crime.
A.G-J BOOKS & GEMS 