Can Fiona catch a killer and find a decent cup of tea before her mustache wax melts?
1917. New York.
Notorious spy, Fredrick Fredricks, has invited Fiona to Carnegie Hall to hear a famous soprano. It’s an opportunity the War Office can’t turn down. Fiona and Clifford are soon on their way, but not before Fiona is saddled with chaperone duties for Captain Hall’s niece. Is Fiona a spy or a glorified babysitter?
From the minute Fiona meets the soprano aboard the RMS Adriatic it’s treble on the high C’s. Fiona sees something—or someone—thrown overboard, and then she overhears a chemist plotting in German with one of her own countrymen!
And the trouble doesn’t stop when they disembark. Soon Fiona is doing time with a group of suffragettes and investigating America’s most impressive inventor Thomas Edison.
When her number one suspect turns up dead at the opera and Fredrick Fredricks is caught red-handed, it looks like it’s finally curtains for the notorious spy.
But all the evidence points to his innocence. Will Fiona change her tune and clear her nemesis’ name? Or will she do her duty? And just what is she going to do with the pesky Kitty Lane? Not to mention swoon-worthy Archie Somersby . . .
If Fiona’s going to come out on top, she’s going to have to make the most difficult decision of her life: the choice between her head and her heart.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Eliza had taken to calling me “Aunt Fiona.” Only seven years her senior, I was hardly old enough to be her aunt. Technically, I suppose I was old enough. Still, “Aunt Fiona” sounded positively hideous— the kind of homely aunt one locked in an attic and only allowed out when the company had gone home— and altogether too informal for my tastes.
I may have overdone it with the face powder, but she’d been overly enthusiastic with her rouge. She looked like a radish.
I had to admit, there was something reassuring about Clifford and his carefree manner— an ease born of a life of comfort, privilege, and abstaining from contemplation.
I was just telling Marc about my in-laws. The only obscenities they don’t use to describe me are the ones they can’t pronounce.
This was a task for Clifford. He could chat up a turnip and find out what lay beneath its roots.
My Review:
This was an easy, enjoyable, and lively read that kept me guessing and entertained. I admired Feisty Fiona, she was independent and ahead of her time. The writing style was easy to follow and descriptive and pulled colorful and detailed visuals to my mind’s eye. The engaging storylines were well-paced and populated with unique, amusing, and authentic characters. I’m already looking forward to more of Ms. Figg’s breezy adventures.
I
About Kelly Oliver
Kelly Oliver grew up in the Northwest, Montana, Idaho, and Washington states. Her maternal grandfather was a forest ranger committed to saving the trees, and her paternal grandfather was a logger hell-bent on cutting them down. On both sides, her ancestors were some of the first settlers in Northern Idaho. In her own unlikely story, Kelly went from eating a steady diet of wild game shot by her dad to becoming a vegetarian while studying philosophy and pondering animal minds. Competing with peers who’d come from private schools and posh families “back East,” Kelly’s working-class backwoods grit has served her well. And much to her parent’s surprise, she’s managed to feed and clothe herself as a professional philosopher.
When she’s not writing mysteries, Kelly Oliver is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. She earned her B.A. from Gonzaga University and her Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She is the author of thirteen scholarly books, ten anthologies, and over 100 articles, including work on campus rape, reproductive technologies, women and the media, film noir, and Alfred Hitchcock. Her work has been translated into seven languages, and she has published an op-ed on loving our pets in The New York Times. She has been interviewed on ABC television news, the Canadian Broadcasting Network, and various radio programs.
Kelly lives in Nashville with her husband, Benigno Trigo, and her furry family, Mischief and Mayhem.
Find out more about Kelly at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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