Playing with Fire: A 1960s British Mystery (Kate O’Donnell Mystery)
Set in 1960s Soho London, Playing with Fire will be of more interest to fans of standard detective fare than historical fiction.
Detective Sergeant Harry Barnard is called to investigate the death of a young woman who seemingly fell from the upper window of a newly renovated nightclub. His love interest, photographer Kate O’Donnell, a transplant from Liverpool, is assisting her ex, Dave Donovan, in locating his current girlfriend, Bernie Collins. Bernie left for London in hope of a recording contract and has not been heard from since.
The novel is rambling in style, long on cliché and very short of action. The characters, both male and female, speak in a common literary voice and spend much of the novel expressing undefined reservations. While many great detective stories begin with a single crime and do nothing more than chronicle its solution (think Columbo), Playing with Fire lacks the narrative arc to support its protracted dialog. The historical aspects, like the mood of the novel, are inserted by announcement rather than exposition. Mere references to British music acts of the era and vague winks at the Soho lifestyle stand in for real historical content.
Friends who love crime mysteries will doubtless disagree with me, and if this is your genre, then by all means pick the book up.
