The Pantomime Murders, Fiona Veitch Smith

The Pantomime Murders is an enjoyable and well-researched historical crime novel, set in Northern England in 1929, and the second in a series. If you haven't read the first, however, don't worry, the author updates the new reader in an easy manner, avoiding those pages of backstory which can be irritating to the reader who is already familiar with it.

Clara Vale, private detective, has inherited her business from her uncle and, having already successfully solved a murder or two, is ready to embark on new cases. She finds two clients, a dancer whose friend and mentor has disappeared after a pantomime performance in York, and the prestigious Fenwicks department store in Newcastle, who have suffered from a spate of shoplifting. The latter brings with it the useful perk of jujitsu training!

Clara is very much the modern woman, too young to have been a Suffragette, but just old enough to have benefited from the changes they have helped to bring about. She has a degree from Oxford (so she's one of that league of new and unfortunately-named "graduettes") and a laboratory in the basement where she can develop photographs and conduct analyses, so she's well-qualified, if lacking experience, and, of course, has to fight her corner with prejudice from policemen and pathologists. Luckily, though, she has a friend in Dr Charlie Malone, who allows her to observe and assist in her first post-mortem, and the local Inspector Hawkes is at least tolerant of her involvement in crime cases, if not exactly overjoyed at the prospect.

The action alternates between York and Newcastle, conveniently close since Clara can drive herself back and forth. She's a very capable young woman, though her efficiency slips a bit when her mother, sister and all her sister's children fetch up on her doorstep on Christmas Eve. Of course, her family doesn't approve of her independence, or the way she lives alone without servants. Disastrously, it looks as if they might be there to stay, which could be very inconvenient indeed.

Being a stickler, I checked on some of the author's use of words which felt as if they might be too modern - I might quibble at the use of "predator" in the human sense, for instance, but it had been used in the 1920s, even if it wasn't common parlance until the '80s. I hope the formatting will be sorted out before the final e-version (my ARC was a PDF, which had some issues which will transfer if not tidied up) but again, I am quibbling somewhat, as I've seen much worse and it's not bad enough to interfere seriously with reading. One or two grammatical errors could be cleared out at the same time, and it would be nice if Clara's family titles could be corrected (it's easy to check aristocratic titles and their correct forms with Debretts online). A good copy-editor should have sorted all of this out.

Having quibbled, this promises be an excellent series. I fully intend to go back and read the first, The Picture House Murders, and will be on the lookout for more instalments. Clara may be overcoming prejudice against her sex a little too easily for the period, but a truly accurate depiction of that battle might prove to be too depressing for the reader. Let's just settle down and enjoy a cheerful version!

My copy was provided by NetGalley and the publisher, Embla Books. The Pantomime Murders will be published on 28 November.