‘’Everything can be given a price if someone chooses’, her mother said. ‘It doesn’t have to make sense to us, Anna. So little of the world makes sense.’’

Iolanthe Green, an American actress, goes missing while on a very successful series of performances in London. Unwilling to admit defeat, Anna searches London high and low to find her. Aided by Aloysius, her efforts will bring her to a path away from the capital as a journey to a troubled past and a problematic, yet hopeful, present unfolds.

‘’London seemed romantic, with its twisting parks and grime-covered frontages; its dark-stained river flanked by rictus-mouthed fish who held with their tails a trail of softly glowing lights: the epitome of grand metropolitan strangeness. It was a shifting city of light and dark; of strange shadows cast across the Thames at twilight, of grimy dark underpasses and roads which shone like sheets of metal on a summer’s day.’’

I could write pages after pages about Miranda Emmerson’s beautiful, evocative writing that revives the atmosphere of Soho during the enchanting Swinging Sixties, the capital that comes alive in front of our eyes. We witness London during the busy mornings and the colourful nights, we walk down its streets accompanied by sounds and perfumes, we experience its unique beauty, its joys and sorrows. I could talk to you about the literary and cultural references, from 60s music to the Bradley and Hindley case, in an outstanding depiction of the era. And this chronicle is seamlessly united with moving commentary on issues that continue to concern us. Racism, discrimination, mental health, social expectations. Violence and cruelty. And hope. And love.

More importantly, I could write volumes on the perfection of Anna and Aloysius’s characters. She is superb, he is unique. Their determination, their bravery, their kindness. I could see myself in Anna for various reasons and their interactions are a true literary treat. Supported by an excellent cast of characters that are the epitome of the (cliche but accurate) phrase ‘’jump right off the page’’, Anna elevates this novel into a different bookish realm. And I am not exaggerating. I am just excited and thrilled that I had the chance to read this gem.

Don’t let me tire you. Read Miranda Emmerson’s creation and I am sure that when you read the last page, you’ll wish you could turn back time to savour the novel all over again, absorbing each paragraph. I cannot wait to read A Little London Scandal.

‘’Amesbury Avenue. Hillside Road. Palace Road. The vast houses flicked by, marking time and space. There were no cars on the roads now. The living-room windows shone yellow and orange in the darkness. Here and there Anna was aware of faces pressed to the glass, watching the snow fall, watching a black man lead a white woman through the streets.’’

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Set in London during late 1965, Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson is mystery about an American actress who disappears after her performance at a local theater.

When Iolanthe "Lanny" Green fails to show up for work Monday afternoon, her dresser, Anna Treadway, is concerned but she is certain Lanny is just running late. However, when she misses the next day's performance as well, she is reported missing and the local newspapers run with story. Detective Sergeant Barnaby Hayes is assigned to the investigation but he is making little headway as he searches clues that will help him locate the missing actress. When public interest wanes, Anna takes it upon herself to do a little amateur sleuthing on her own and she finds some very interesting details about Lanny but will the information she uncovers help her find the missing woman?

The investigation into Lanny's disappearance is interesting and takes some very unexpected twists and turns. Unfortunately, the bulk of the storyline is not focused on the mystery surrounding the missing woman. Readers are instead introduced to a number of people whom Anna either already knows or she meets during her search for Lanny. DS Hayes is the only person in an official capacity trying to find Lanny and even he is facing prejudice from the people he works with. The unfolding story is a little convoluted and disjointed and feels more like social commentary for the diverse characters who are involved in the search for the actress. Each of the characters' issues are interesting and thought-provoking but the mystery element of the story quickly feels like an afterthought.

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars by Miranda Emmerson is a fascinating peek into lives of an eclectic and diverse set of characters in London during the mid 1960s. The mystery surrounding Lanny's disappearance is quite intriguing and all of the loose ends about what happened to the actress are completely wrapped up by the novel's conclusion.
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Anna Treadway is an independent young woman working as a dresser in London's Theatreland, her charge is ageing starlet Iolanthe Green. When Lanny goes missing Anna is determined to find her and her search leads her into the louche underworld of sixties society. Also searching for Lanny is Detective Barnaby Hayes, an Irishman with a rocky marriage and suffering prejudice at work. When they team up with Jamaican accountant Aloysius the search reveals racism, worry and a secret around an unwanted pregnancy.

This is a very interesting book in that it wears it's 'big' themes very lightly, burying them deep in an entertaining tale. Whilst ostensively a detective story, there isn't really a crime and this is more a story about society and its prejudices. Barnaby has changed his name because he is too Irish, Anna's father was interred during the war as an enemy alien and Aloysius is black, Lanny has a secret about her ancestry as well. It is set in the 1960s but there aren't that many cultural references however abortion is still illegal and Anna and Lanny have both got pregnant out of wedlock so that is explored. The actual narrative is not too challenging and bounces along quite pleasantly but the underlying themes of the book resonate and that makes it both clever and something more thought-provoking. ( )

While it took me a little while to get into this story, by halfway through the book I couldn't put the book down. It wasn't what I expected, but that's okay because Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars is more literary and substantial than I thought it would be. It sounds like a mystery, and along the way a lot is revealed, but it’s more about the people in the story rather than a crime that needs solving. Characters are one of its strengths and they include Anna with her secrets, an Irish police officer trying to appear British and his unhappy wife, the Turkish family who run the restaurant Anna lives above, and a black Jamaican accountant who wants to fit in. It’s set in 1965 so there are references to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Carnaby Street, but it’s not a lighthearted swinging sixties story. Instead it explores themes like racism, classism, immigration, and repression. The writing is atmospheric and full of mood-setting description that's lush and gritty, heartwarming and heartbreaking.

I read an advanced review copy of this book supplied to me at no cost and with no obligation by the publisher. Review opinions are mine. ( )

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars is as English a book as you can find. From the darling title to the story of ordinary people going to extraordinary lengths out of a sense of duty to each other and to their ideals, it is a very English book, rich in English culture and values. Yet, every character in the book is an immigrant, even the unstoppable Miss Treadway. This may be Miranda Emmerson’s first novel, but she writes with the confidence and sure-footedness of long experience.

Anna Treadway is a dresser for the fabulous American actress, Iolanthe Green, who mysteriously disappeared one night, walking back to her hotel from the theater. Anna, who moved to London from Wales, is determined to find her, believing the police are simply not doing enough. She lives above a cafe run by Ottmar, an immigrant from Turkey. She had worked at the cafe when she first came to London and Ottmar has a soft spot in his heart for her. On the part of the police, Barnaby Hayes, an immigrant from Ireland, is working harder than Anna supposes, his devotion to his work supplanting his devotion to his wife and daughter. In her investigations, Anna meets Aloysius, an immigrant from Jamaica, whose aspirations are as country-home British as they come.

I loved Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars but probably not for obvious reasons. The mystery is more a game of tag and there is an extraordinary number of people being in the same place at the same time and despite Miss Treadway and Inspector Hayes worries about “why women disappear” there is not much suspense or tension in the mystery. But then, I am not convinced that the mystery is the point of this novel at all.

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars is about identity and belonging. It is about how people reinvent themselves. It’s no spoiler to inform you that nearly every character has two names. There’s Barnaby (Brennan), Iolanthe (Yolanda), and Aloysius (Louis) and even Miss Treadway has a surprise or two, or three. This is a story of immigrants assimilating. When the Jamaica-born Aloysius is brutalized by racist police, it does not matter than he is a “suit-wearing, tea-drinking, Financial Times and Evelyn Waugh reading man of London town.” He is black and though “the man in his head had become far whiter” that is not the man the police see.

Anna Treadway finds her own identity in question, her faith in institutions crumbling in the face of injustice. Emmerson described it as feeling as though “somehow the institutions belonged to her. She had a sense of ownership” of the social, political, legal institutions of the country. She also wrote about Anna wondering how Aloysius perceived her skin color, was it as evident to him as his was to her or did her pale complexion signify “the blankness of a slate?” The phrase “white privilege” raises so many hackles, but perhaps Emmerson’s descriptions, the sense of ownership of the kingdom’s institutions, the blankness of the slate–a slate clear of negative stereotypes in the minds of police, for example. It was heartening to see new metaphors for privilege that perhaps are more effective because they don’t trigger defensiveness so quickly.

The characters in Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars are interesting, complex, and everything that matters to the story. There’s a bit of unlikely coincidence, but it is such perfect coincidence, that I embrace it all.

Miss Treadway and the Field of Stars will be released February 27, 2017. I received an advance e-galley from the publisher through Edelweiss.
★★★★★
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