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Kitty Underhay’s dance card is full… of death.

November 1933. Amateur sleuth-cum-dutiful granddaughter Kitty Underhay stifles a sigh of boredom as she attends the annual Hoteliers’ Association Dinner and Dance on behalf of her grandmother, the proprietress of the Dolphin Hotel. She hopes the company of ex-army captain Matthew Bryant will enliven the otherwise dull evening. That is until bullish and overbearing local councilor Harold Everton drops dead into his bowl of consommé.

While the local police are still scrambling for their whistles, Kitty and Matt waste no time leaping into action. Soon they find themselves caught up in a dangerous search to uncover who amongst the distinguished guests used cyanide for seasoning?

When their digging throws light on a corruption scandal brewing in the local council involving Everton’s assistant Thomas King, they are sure they’ve cracked the case. But before he can be questioned further, King’s body is found in a smoldering car wreck. Meanwhile, the murderer has made a sinister plan to avoid detection or punishment, and it will lead Kitty and Matt into a dangerous dance with death…

A fast, fun, and utterly unputdownable Golden Age cozy murder mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, T E Kinsey, and Lee Strauss.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

‘I believe I’ve met her cousin, Betty, on a few occasions.’ Alice’s mother sniffed. ‘My sister Aggie’s girl. A fast article she is and so sharp she’ll cut herself one of these times.’

 

You know you cannot do anything around here without the world knowing your business. You were seen, my dear, by one of the staff and now their tongues are wagging at both ends spreading gossip.

 

The remains of the snow lingered only in a few shady corners, piled up like spilled icing sugar that someone had swept up and forgotten to disperse.

My Review:

 

While this may be book number four in the series, it was my introduction to Miss Underhay as well as my first sojourn into the wry wit and smooth writing of Helena Dixon. It seems I’m slow on the uptake lately. Each scene flowed like a well-cast episode of Masterpiece Theater. It was an easy, engaging, and light read that kept me interested as well as entertained throughout perusal. The storylines and writing were well contrived, shrewdly paced, and laced with amusing observations and humorous descriptions of the cast of idiosyncratic and oddly intriguing characters.

And it has been a good while since I scored an addition to my Brit Words and Phrases list and I found two new ones tucked into their dialogues with walking out – an old fashioned term for courting or dating; and nine days’ wonder – a hot topic for a short duration, what we currently would say is trending on social media. Although what might have held an enduring interest for nine days then, might last all of nine minutes now due to our vastly diminished attention spans.

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