Limelight

Inspector James Blakely of Scotland Yard has approached Miss Penny Green one evening in London to inform her that the actress Lizzie Dixie has been murdered.  Green is shocked to hear that because Lizzie Dixie had drowned five years earlier on the Princess Alice when it had sunk in the Thames in 1878.

Green has been let go as a reporter from the Morning Express due to the influence of the Commissioner of Scotland Yard.  Blakely promises to put in a few good words with the commissioner if Green agrees to help him.  He will also give her exclusive access to information about the case.  However, she declines on the grounds that there is no chance of being reinstated as a reporter.

Green decides to do some investigation on her own into why Lizzie had disappeared for five years only to reappear to be murdered.

Fortunately, Green is offered her old job back, but she doesn’t get the task of reporting the story about Lizzie.  She begins to work with Inspector Blakely, who takes her to the place that Lizzie had been murdered.  Why had she hidden for five years and why would someone kill her now?

After an explosion on a train in the underground, on which Green was travelling, she receives a letter warning her to stay out of the investigation.  Is it a warning about the bombing or about Lizzie’s murder?

The tenor of the investigation changes when Lizzie’s daughter, Annie, is shot while performing a horse riding act.  Fortunately, it is just a shoulder wound, but her back and neck are also hurt in the fall from the horse. Why was she targeted?  Is it the same person who shot and killed Lizzie?

Not long after this, Blakely is taken off the case, and replaced by Chief Inspector Cullen.  Will Cullen be able to find the killer?  

Author Emily Organ’s first mystery in this series is a good puzzler.  The killer comes as a bit of a surprise.  A good quick read.