“Murder Offstage” - L. B. Hathaway

 (Posie Parker book 1)

🎭 This was a fun Golden Age mystery set in 1921 London. Posie’s fledgling detective agency located at Grape Street, is struggling for consistent business. It doesn’t help that it is a solo practice, helmed by a woman. But Posie is determined to make a name for herself. She suddenly finds herself embroiled in two matters: her good buddy Rufus, Earl of Cardigeon has managed to be conned of a priceless jewel by an infamous criminal, and a cold-blooded murder in the hotel lobby of the Ritz by the same. Just who is Lucky Lucy? And who is the smooth-talking Caspian de la Rosa? Posie will need the help of her newest employee, Len and the ever-reliable Inspector Richard Lovelace, to crack this case wide open.

🎭 I enjoyed this novel - Hathaway does a great job of capturing the vibe of 1920s London. I thought the little office romance - the will they/won’t they - of Len and Posie was a fun side note to the main mysteries at hand. On the spectrum of post-Great War female detectives, I found Posie to be somewhere in the middle between Phryne Fisher and Maisie Dobbs. She’s not as constantly broody as Maisie, but also nowhere as whimsical as Phryne.