Shadow Waltz (The Marjorie McClelland Mysteries)
By: Amy Patricia Meade
Rating: 4.5 of 5
“Shadow Waltz” is the third book in the Marjorie McClelland Mysteries by Amy Patricia Meade; however, it is the first book I have read in this series and, indeed, the first book I have read by Ms. Meade. I often chose to start a series mid-way through in order to judge whether it can be read stand-alone enjoyably or if it needs to be read as part of the series. While I did enjoy reading the book, I think it would be more enjoyable to have read it as part of the series. There seems to be many references to people, places, and occurrences which happened in the first two books. While I was able to figure out a good number of them by the end of the book, while I was reading it, I was puzzled by some of the references.
The story itself was definitely a fun and cozy mystery. Marjorie McClelland is a mystery writer who lives in Connecticut during the 1930’s. The country is still fairly deep in the Great Depression and there are signs that a good number of people are struggling. Thankfully for Marjorie and her fiance, Creighton Ashcroft, that is not their situation. Marjorie is making a nice living from her books and Creighton appears to be very wealthy indeed.
The couple, and especially Marjorie, seem to happen across murder mysteries and feel called upon to try to solve them at once. This makes life a little difficult for Marjorie’s recent ex-fiance, Detective Jameson, whose job is actually solving murders in their small locale. However, Jameson is willing to let bygones be bygones and they start working together (somewhat) to solve the whodunnit in this book.
I was not able to solve the mystery until close to the end although looking back, their were a number of clues left by the author. The art of misdirection in a mystery is well done by Ms. Meade in this story and the plot and the storyline were quite fun. The characters are somewhat developed but I feel would be well-developed had I read the two prior books. The dialog is snappy and is very reminiscent of dialog in movies filmed in the time-frame. As a big fan of movies from the 1930s through 1950s, it was a lot of fun to enjoy a recently written book that evoked the same feelings.
I recommend the book to anyone who likes a cozy mystery and especially to those who also like the old movies with snappy dialog and funny situations. The book was a fun and quick read.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Midnight Ink, via Netgalley.
“Shadow Waltz” is the third book in the Marjorie McClelland Mysteries by Amy Patricia Meade; however, it is the first book I have read in this series and, indeed, the first book I have read by Ms. Meade. I often chose to start a series mid-way through in order to judge whether it can be read stand-alone enjoyably or if it needs to be read as part of the series. While I did enjoy reading the book, I think it would be more enjoyable to have read it as part of the series. There seems to be many references to people, places, and occurrences which happened in the first two books. While I was able to figure out a good number of them by the end of the book, while I was reading it, I was puzzled by some of the references.