Brighton Belle by Sara Sheridan

If you enjoy cosy mysteries like Father Brown, you’ll love this good old-fashioned cosy that touches on some darker social issues of the 1950s

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About the Book

In post-World War II England, former Secret Service operative Mirabelle Bevan becomes embroiled in a new kind of intrigue…
 
1951: In the popular seaside town of Brighton, it’s time for Mirabelle Bevan to move beyond her tumultuous wartime years and start anew. Accepting a job at a debt collection agency seems a step toward a more tranquil life.

But as she follows up on a routine loan to Romana Laszlo, a pregnant Hungarian refugee who’s recently come off the train from London, Mirabelle’s instincts for spotting deception are stirred when the woman is reported dead, along with her unborn child.

After encountering a social-climbing doctor with a sudden influx of wealth and Romana’s sister, who seems far from bereaved and doesn’t sound Hungarian, Mirabelle decides to dig deeper into the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. Aided by her feisty sidekick—a fellow office worker named Vesta Churchill (“no relation to Winston,” as she explains)—Mirabelle unravels a web of evil that stretches from the Brighton beachfront to the darkest corners of Europe. Putting her own life at risk, she must navigate a lethal labyrinth of lies and danger to expose the truth.

(from the publishers)

My thoughts

Mirabelle is a great character. Close enough to the cliché PI to be recognisable and yet far enough away to be fresh and interesting. Brighton Belle is her ‘origin’ story and I look forward to reading more about her adventures with the forthright and pragmatic Vespa.

The style reminded me a little of Dashiell Hammett in the gritty underbelly that Mirabelle exposes, and of Dorothy Sayers in her intelligent female heroine with a past that gives her an air of mystery. Having said that, Brighton Belle is much lighter in tone than both authors though it deals with some pretty shady characters.

In some chapters there is rather a lot of head-hopping between character’s thoughts and I found this disconcerting in a modern novel. It’s possible this was a stylistic choice to fit with novels written at the time in which Brighton Belle is set, but I did occasionally wonder who’s head I was in. There are also two plot devices around disguises that seem rather unbelievable and as such felt a little contrived and made the primary reason Mirabelle gets involved in the case quite easy to figure out. There’s also plenty of scope to flesh out other characters including the detective who looks set to flip between possible love interest and thorn in her side. Hopefully we’ll see more development of the three main characters as the series continues.

I loved the touches of explicit detail that give us an insight into the times—brands, attitudes, fashion and the rations books—as well as the deeper issues that are only touched on here such as the casually offensive way people treat dark-skinned Vespa, endemic sexism, and the after effects of World War II.

Definitely one for those of us who love Father Brown and other such cosies.

*My review copy courtesy of NetGalley and Kensington Publishers. (I also own a copy).

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