Review of The Harlot of St. Cecelia's
Darcy Graves is back today with my review of her debut book The Harlot of St. Cecelia's. If you're a fan of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, this could be your next mystery series. You can read my author interview and enter the giveaway HERE.
More about The Harlot of St. Cecelia's
London, 1923. American expat librarian Eden Brior thinks things are bad when she is accidentally locked overnight in the St. Cecelia’s Library vault with the charming and unreliable Simon Cross. Then she emerges to find the body of his estranged wife — a celebrated French actress — draped over a chair upstairs.
Detective Inspector William Garrett is methodical, quietly perceptive, and already fairly certain he has his man. He tells Eden firmly to go home and leave the detecting to the professionals. But how can she?
Racing to clear their names before Garrett closes the case, Eden follows the truth from the bright footlights of the London stage through the sleek drawing rooms of Jazz Age society, and into secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.
Steeped in the style of the golden age of detective fiction, The Harlot of St. Cecelia’s captures a London still glittering on the surface and shadowed underneath — where every drawing room hides a secret and every secret has a price.
More about Darcy Graves
Darcy Graves grew up in Boston and holds an MA in English history and a BS in copywriting. A marketing content writer for over thirty years, she brings to her work a deep love of the golden age of detective fiction — particularly Agatha Christie and P.D. James — and the whimsy of P.G. Wodehouse.
Darcy lives in the Berkshires with her daughter, two ragdoll cats, and a very naughty terrier named Merial. The Harlot of St. Cecelia's is her first novel.
Catch Up With Darcy Graves
Website: DarcyGravesAuthor.com
Thoughts about The Harlot of St. Cecelia's
The best part of this book was, not only did the mystery go to places I wasn't expecting, but it seemed to leave some unanswered questions about many of the characters that I'm dying to learn more about. What are the secrets Simon is hiding from Paris? Why does Eden wear a man's coat? Is Garrett haunted by his war experiences? Why is his new landlady struggling to raise her grandchildren? So the murder mystery may be solved on the last page but you're left wanting more about these interesting characters who have rich (but veiled) back stories.
If you like a book full of excitement and danger, this may not be for you. The Harlot of St. Cecelia's (love the title!) is a cerebral mystery. It is solved through interviews and deciphering clues. So some may find it a bit slower paced in the middle. Unlikely people pair up to try and discover who murdered the beautiful actress and so many of the sleuths are a combination of naive and jaded. Who knew those two traits could co-exist? Refreshingly, a romance was not shoehorned into the plot.
The period between the two wars was an interesting time and this book portrays that competing pull of the past and the future, the rich class system and the new equalizing brought about by the Great War. I'd love to see more about the characters (especially Garrett and Eden) and how World War I shaped them and brought them to where they are right now.
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Great review! This one sounds very interesting to me! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for the lovely review, Jodi!