Marilyn's Mystery Reads

It’s 1925 in New York City, and the Jazz Age is in full swing.  Prohibition has been the law of the land for five years, but you’d never know it at the Nightingale Cafe, a speakeasy where crowds drink illegal cocktails and listen to Beatrice Bluebird sing.

Vivian Kelly works at the Cafe as a waitress, but she is on the dance floor as much as possible.  When she and Bea interrupt a fight between Spence, one of the club’s newest employees, and an unknown gangster, it proves to be the beginning of the problems that the Nightingale is facing.

Vivian and her sister Florence are orphans.  Their mother died when they were toddlers, and their father deserted his children soon after his wife’s death.  The girls grew up in an orphanage, learning the sewing skills that allowed them to earn a living, meager though it was.  Now Florence is married and the mother of an infant daughter, and perhaps because of that she has taken what may turn out to be a life-changing step.

A few months earlier Vivian and Florence had visited their mother’s grave on Hart Island and discovered that someone had placed a headstone on it.  Believing they were alone in the world, the sisters couldn’t imagine who would have done that, and through negotiations with people in the city administration Vivian manages to discover the address of the unknown benefactor, but not their name.

Nonetheless, Florence sends a letter to that address, explaining who she is and why she is writing.  Now, after months of not receiving an answer, one arrives.  The letter invites the sisters to visit the writer, Ruth Quinn, and so they do, although they can’t imagine the connection between Ruth and their late mother.

Ruth admits to paying for their mother’s headstone and explains that she is their aunt, their father’s sister.  She gives them some information about their parents’ marriage and tells them that their father died several years ago.  Although Ruth is welcoming at first, during the conversation her behavior changes, and she seems eager to to have the sisters leave.

Meantime, back at the Nightingale, trouble is definitely brewing.  Silent, the nickname given to one of the bouncers, is murdered, and a mysterious man returns for a second night.  He’s looking for a man named Hugh Brown and threatens Vivian and Honor Huxley, the Cafe’s owner, that he’ll return in two days and expects to find Brown there or else.

Katharine Schellman has written the fourth novel about Vivian Kelly, but sadly she has announced it will be the last in the series.  I’m really sorry that there won’t be more adventures with Vivian as the protagonist and the fascinating cast of characters around her:  Honor Huxley, owner of the Nightingale; Florence, Vivian’s older sister; Danny, Florence’s husband; Leo Green, low-level gangster and Vivian’s friend.  But I plan to keep my eyes peeled for what I hope will be a new series by the author.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novel.

One Response to “LAST DANCE BEFORE DAWN by Katharine Schellman: Book Review”