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A review by veronica87
Brighton Belle by Sara Sheridan
3.0
Set in Brighton, England in 1951, this entertaining mystery story centers on Mirabelle Bevan, an intelligent woman in her (I'm guessing) mid-thirties who, much like England itself, is still recovering from the after effects of WW1. For Mirabelle, that means mourning the death of her lover 18 months ago. She's been going through the motions of her life, having left behind her work in intelligence with the British Secret Service (which her lover, Jack, also did) to seek out peaceful monotony working for a debt collection agency. When a new debt collection case comes in that doesn't add up and her boss goes missing, Mirabelle's old Secret Service instincts get activated. As she follows the clues and the plot thickens, she crosses paths with Vesta Churchill ("no relation"), the plucky secretary in the insurance company across the hall, and Detective Inspector Alan McGregor.
This was a quick read but it was well paced, not perfect but not a lot that felt like filler either. I really liked Mirabelle as well as the secondary characters, though they can all use some more fleshing out. The mystery aspect had branches seemingly going off in all sorts of directions but it gets tied together in the end and it's quite time appropriate considering what was going on during those post-war years. I'm definitely going to read more in this series.
This was a quick read but it was well paced, not perfect but not a lot that felt like filler either. I really liked Mirabelle as well as the secondary characters, though they can all use some more fleshing out. The mystery aspect had branches seemingly going off in all sorts of directions but it gets tied together in the end and it's quite time appropriate considering what was going on during those post-war years. I'm definitely going to read more in this series.