In the 2nd of the Clara Vale mysteries, we experience Christmas in England in 1929, as Miss Vale navigates two separate cases while still learning the detective business that she inherited from her uncle. In one she must find out who is shoplifting at a department store, and in the other, she is hired by a traveling pantomime actor to find the missing Cinderella’s Godmother. Further setting the scene is an impromptu visit from her family as some of the issues from the US stock market crash start to have effects in England and Europe.

I enjoyed many of the female characters in the book. Clara is plucky and determined, her eventual sidekick is brave, strong and funny. Clara’s family members are different than you might expect. The male characters are less fleshed out and are either dismissive of her as a woman or paternalistically tolerant.

The author spends a lot of time having Clara go over clues and timelines in her thoughts, charting it out on paper, talking it over with others, etc. A lot of time, often with nothing new to add. Covering the same information multiple times became a little boring. Ultimately the mystery was pretty convoluted, and I’m not sure it worked very well. We never did find out what happened with one of the major suspects at the end or if he was truly involved.

My favorite part overall was the timeframe and setting. The author clearly did some research, and I enjoyed the clothes, houses, and jargon of the day.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Newcastle, historical-fiction, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, suspense, suspicion, history-and-culture, local-law-enforcement, witty, unputdownable, inheritance, lawyers, relatives, 1929, private-investigators, amateur-sleuth, investigations, investigators, thievery, cozy-mystery, disappearance, entrepreneur, murder-investigation, winter*****

This is the second in a well written cozy series.
It's set in 1929 England with a dysfunctional wealthy family and the very independent daughter who was self-sufficiently working in a library (despite having earned a science degree at Oxford). She discovered that her uncle died and the inheritance that was left to her includes a large townhouse complete with laboratory, a lot of money, a detective agency, and her first case.
This time she has been asked to investigate a rise in thievery by customers a a large store and also look into the disappearance of the most recent disappearance of a particular sort of popular actress. Clara is learning more about the business of a detective agency and how her operatives do their work. When the actress turns up murdered, things get really convoluted and full of unexpected twists and sneaky red herrings. Excellent read!
I requested and received an EARC from Embla Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )