After an eventful sailing, including murder and a marriage proposal, Lady Eleanor Swift is safely in New York. Her fiance heads home but she witnesses a hit and run after a society party. Can she convince the police that the death was deliberate?
Murder in Manhattan is the 14th book to feature Lady Eleanor Swift and her glorious butler Clifford. The plot follows on directly from the previous book, Death On Deck, but there are no spoilers about the crime only the personal and relationships developments.
Ellie is causing the usual stir in society and despair to the loyal yet exasperated Clifford. She is ably (or not!) accompanied by Gladstone the bulldog adding to the light humour. The police are contemptuous about her suspicions and so she embarks on her own investigation to seek justice for the victim. She is her usual determined self, looking danger in the eye but always protected by Clifford.
American society does not seem very pleasant and this definitely do not improve after the murder. Ellie has plenty of avenues to explore while she searches for motive and possible suspects. I enjoyed the contrast with the usual setting of England. The geographical, cultural and social differences all feed into the plot and character dynamics.
Murder in Manhattan is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery.
Book Description:
Glitzy parties, sightseeing at the Statue of Liberty and strolls through Central Park with Gladstone the bulldog… Lady Eleanor Swift is loving her first trip to the city that never sleeps, until she witnesses a murder!
After crossing from England on the SS Celestiana, Lady Eleanor Swift sets up her home-away-from-home in a lavish apartment in New York City. She is soon the toast of the town, with no high-class soirée complete without her presence. Of course, she drags her butler Clifford and Gladstone the bulldog along to every party too.
But when she witnesses the charming doorman of her building, Marty, knocked down and killed in a hit-and-run, she finds fashionable society suddenly closes rank. The only local detective interested in helping her find the culprit is street-smart beat cop, Officer Balowski.
Resolved to get justice for Marty and his family, Eleanor searches Marty’s tiny apartment and is shocked to find five rolls of banknotes tucked under the floorboards. Money talks, but Marty was struggling to make ends meet, so where did the cash come from?
The next day, wealthy entrepreneur and flashy philanderer Ogden P. Dellaney – a man Marty used to work for – is found dead downtown, miles away from his swanky Upper East Side mansion. Eleanor and Balowski are sure the deaths are connected, but not even Dellaney’s wife is willing to answer their questions.
Then Eleanor is served with an eviction notice and Balowski is fired from the NYPD. It becomes clear that something is rotten in the Big Apple and Eleanor is determined to get to the core of the mystery before the murderer strikes again…
Murder in Manhattan is a fun, fast-paced and twisty Golden Age cozy mystery set in New York. Fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss will be glued to the pages.
Author Bio:
Verity Bright is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing partnership that has spanned a quarter of a century. Starting out writing high-end travel articles and books, they published everything from self-improvement to humour, before embarking on their first historical mystery. They are the authors of the fabulous Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery series, set in the 1920s.
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