1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mercy Allcutt mystery #2, May 10 2009
This review is from: Angel's Flight: A Mercy Allcutt Mystery (Hardcover)
Set in August, 1926, Los Angeles, California. Miss Mercy Allcutt resides with her sister, Chloe, and brother-in-law, Harvey Nash. Mercy and Chloe's family are in Boston. (LA is as far away from Boston as the girls could get.) Nash Studio is doing very well in the motion-picture industry. Mercy wants to someday write mystery novels. For research and experience, Mercy is the secretary for a private investigator, Ernie Templeton. Mercy enjoys her job immensely, always striving to make herself indispensable to Ernie. Now that the Figueroa Building is getting a much needed face-lift, more businesses are moving in. The recent new business is a lawyer's office, James Quincy Carstairs, Esq. His secretary, Sylvia Dunstable is organized in a way that Mercy hopes to learn. Having been the lawyer's secretary for years, Sylvia is "in the know" about many famous people (clients). Mercy soon learns that Ernie and Carstairs have a history from when Ernie had been a cop. The two hardly tolerate each other and now they are neighbors! But Ernie's business has gotten busy so Mercy has little time to wring Sylvia out for her organizational skills.
Mr. Francis Easthope is a costumier at Harvey's studio. He wants Ernie to help him prove to his mother that the two spiritualists she has been paying are frauds. Ernie did not take the case, but Mercy offers her help. She even convinces him to hire Rupert Mullins as a houseboy so he can help them spy on the pair. At the séance later, Mercy meets his mother (Rosemary), the two spiritualists (Mr. and Mrs. d'Agostina), Jacqueline Lloyd (who has been in a couple of recent movies), and Vivian Hartland (the most famous gossip columnist in the motion-picture industry). Also in attendance, as Miss Lloyd's escort, is Mr. Carstairs. Things take a deadly twist when the séance is over, the lights come back on, and everyone finds Vivian dead.
To top off everything, Mercy and Chloe's mother has left their father and is residing in their home for an unknown amount of time. With her she brings the Bostonian hauteur she is well known for. Not only is Mercy actually working for a living, but she is also directly involved in the largest scandal around. If Mercy manages to survive the case, her mother just may be the death of her.
***** This is the second mystery in the Mercy Allcutt series. In my opinion, it is even better than the first. Readers will find their wits sorely tested as they try to figure out who the killer is and why. There are plenty of suspects but no solid motive for any of them. As for Mrs. Allcutt, all I can say is that Hitler could have taken lessons from that lady! It is no wonder to me the girls live on the other side of the continent. The author has done an exceptionally good job on that character. If you enjoy historical facts, the author has kept everything historically accurate. You will even read a bit about Valentino. I cannot recommend this story highly enough for fans of who-dunnit mysteries. Brilliant! *****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.
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