Wednesday, September 18, 2013

2013 book 245

Mary Miley's The Impersonator
It's 1924, and a young vaudeville actress has been hired to impersonate a long-missing girl, so she and the girl's uncle can claim the inheritance. I actually thought this was going to be a straight-up historical novel, but the actress almost immediately encounters a murdered woman and gets caught up in trying to solve the mystery--and find out what happened to the girl she's impersonating. WHICH of her genteel but money-grubbing relatives or hangers-on could be the killer?? Great historical details here, especially regarding the vaudeville/acting life and bootlegging. The mystery itself is a little bit over-the-top, and the protagonist's crush on a supposed relative is squicky (even though the reader knows they're not really related), but the characters are strong and I think I liked the way everything wrapped up. B/B+.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book is available now.

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