There are lots of crime series being written about the early part of the twentieth century. Laurie R King has written about the later life of Sherlock Holmes who marries in her excellent series of novels (see my post here), Jacqueline Windspear has a female detective in Maisie Dobbs (see here) as does Frances Brody in Kate Shackleton (see here), and Carola Dunn’s heroine Daisy Dalrymple becomes involved in crimes despite her best intentions (see here). As you can see I have read many of these books recently and written blogs about them – I could easily have named a handful more of this type of novel. I do enjoy a light and entertaining historical crime novel.
Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver is a novel of the same sort as those above. It has a female protagonist, Avery Ames, and is set in the 1930s. Avery is a socialite who is unhappily married to Max who is a bit of a philanderer. She is approached by her ex-boyfriend Gil to visit an exclusive seaside resort, the Brightwell of the title, in Devon and to use her influence to stop Gil’s sister marrying an unsuitable man. Because she is bored and unhappy, and also because the situation reminds her of her own marriage, Avery agrees to help.
The resort is filled with rich people, each of whom has their own problems and secrets. Soon there is a murder and Avery finds herself trying to discover who is responsible. Then her husband appears and things become very complicated because he wants to investigate with her and she begins to suspect that their marriage may not be as dead as she had originally thought.
This is a similar book to those I have listed above and like them is one in a series – this is the first. It is light and enjoyable reading but I found that it has very little to distinguish it from the many other historical mysteries available. It passed the time very nicely but I found it rather forgettable and I felt no urge to seek out any subsequent books in this series – you, of course, may feel differently.
Anne Is Reading 