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anatl 's review for:
The Midnight Hour
by Elly Griffiths
This was a lovely lovely read with a wonderful retro feel and no gore. An aging actress, Verity Malone, is suspected of poisoning her philandering husband and old showbiz impresario Bert Billington. She hires a team of female investigators, enter Emma Stephens, a wife and mother of three but also a former police detective, and her friend Samantha Collins, a former newspaper reporter. The finger of suspicion is pointed at her by her youngest son, Aaron, who believes she was getting tired of caring his dad, plus she was getting new ideas reading The Feminine Mystique.
It felt like the spirit of the time was captured very well. It treads a very fine line between nostalgia to a golden age and a social catalogue of all its faults. Feminism is explored throughout the story though most of the female cast are not the average suburban housewives. There are the attitudes toward the female cops who are treated differently than their male counterparts and were not allowed to drive police cars. The women in the showbiz who are subject to unwanted sexual attention. Or even minor tasks like catering to other characters and supplying them with tea and biscuits which was also relegated to the investigating women in the story. Also while Emma investigates Edgar her husband and police officer is left to care for their children for one day and realizes how difficult it is.
I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & Quercus Books in exchange for my honest review
It felt like the spirit of the time was captured very well. It treads a very fine line between nostalgia to a golden age and a social catalogue of all its faults. Feminism is explored throughout the story though most of the female cast are not the average suburban housewives. There are the attitudes toward the female cops who are treated differently than their male counterparts and were not allowed to drive police cars. The women in the showbiz who are subject to unwanted sexual attention. Or even minor tasks like catering to other characters and supplying them with tea and biscuits which was also relegated to the investigating women in the story. Also while Emma investigates Edgar her husband and police officer is left to care for their children for one day and realizes how difficult it is.
I was lucky enough to receive a copy via Netgalley & Quercus Books in exchange for my honest review