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A Mirabelle Bevan Mystery - Book I
Sara Sheridan
Polygon (Birlinn Ltd)
3 May 2012 / ISBN 9781846972331
Historical Mystery / 1951 / Brighton, England
Amazon
US
- UK
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
Mirabelle Bevan had an interesting war in the secret service, but
she is finding peacetime is rather less enjoyable. For one thing.
her lover is dead and, as he was married, she cannot be too public
about mourning him. For another, she is working in the less exciting
job of secretary for a debt collection agency. When a man comes
in about a debt he wants to recover from the pregnant Hungarian
immigrant, Romana Laszlo, it sounds like just another case. But
when Romana turns up dead the plot thickens. Aided and abetted by
another immigrant, black Vesta Churchill, the insurance clerk who
works in the same building, Mirabelle is determined to solve the
case, especially when her boss disappears…
It is always good to read the first in a new series, and this is
the only book set in Brighton in the early 1950s that I can think
of, which is another plus. The cover rather erroneously compares
the author to Agatha Christie, which instantly causes the would-be
reader to imagine something rather cozy. Instead, think more of
the film noir world of Dashiell Hammett, and you won't be far off;
this is what the book kept reminding me of. This is a world of seedy
boarding houses, betting scams, refugees and post-war austerity.
Rationing is still in force, and Ms Sheridan manages to paint a
picture of a bleak place filled with people trying to come to terms
with the very new world the war has left them with. The war still
casts a very long shadow, with the Nuremberg Trials as unfolding
news. If you like your historicals to really bring a period and
place to life - and who doesn't - this ought to impress.
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