Jamie West

I don't know if this was a case of Amazon conspiring with Google, but a random search into the history of the now skeletal West Pier in Brighton produced this recommendation from Kindle Unlimited!

Set in 1930s Brighton, playwright Bertie Carroll - two r's, two l's - journeys down from London to watch a revival of one his early murder mystery plays in the off season Palace Pier Theatre (the Pier survives today but the theatre was dismantled and 'lost' in the 1980s). He meets up with an old school friend, now Detective Chief Inspector Hugh Chapman, which is handy because on opening night, the leading lady, former Hollywood star Celia Hamilton, is bumped off on stage. Hugh and Bertie team up - which seems unlikely but I didn't mind the pairing - to solve the very real murder mystery and uncover the killer behind the very public 'Baldwin incident' (too soon?).

I always add this disclaimer, which is starting to sound like an excuse, but I'm not really a fan of detective stories or murder mysteries, so I didn't try to follow the clues along with Bertie (although I did have my suspicions about one possible suspect, mainly because of watching too many old Perry Mason episodes!) The plot was intriguing if rather slow-paced, however - lots of interviews culminating in an 'aha!' moment for Bertie - and I really enjoyed the theatre setting. Jamie West has worked in the West End for years and his insider knowledge really shows, as does his appreciation of lost theatre architecture.

I also appreciated the budding relationship between Bertie and Hugh, which develops naturally - and cautiously, befitting the era. They work together well, in both a professional and an emotional sense, getting to know each other again while combining the different skills of police detective and playwright. I would have liked to learn more about their lives, however, maybe speeding up the investigation while drawing out the characters. Hopefully we will get to know them better in future books!

I did spot a few anachronisms, which threw me out of the story and into Google - the Hardy Boys books were first published in the UK in the 1940s and Hugh and Bertie would still have been too old to read the original American series, and throwing someone 'under the bus' is a slang phrase from the 70s or 80s at the earliest - but that's just me. Overall, I enjoyed my new year's jaunt to Brighton and would love to read more about Bertie and Hugh!… (more)

The Publisher Says: A murder mystery playwright turns real-life detective when, during one of his plays, an actress is shot and killed, while an unsuspecting audience watches on.

This theatrical murder mystery debut from Jamie West introduces Bertie Carroll, one of the most successful playwrights of the 1930s, and his old school friend Chief Detective Inspector Hugh Chapman. Together they team up to see if they can solve the mystery.

During the performance, the audience watches former Hollywood star, Celia Hamilton, as she is shot onstage, unaware that a real murder is taking place. It’s only when the curtain falls that the cast realise that something has gone horribly wrong.

Did someone swap the bullets in the prop gun for real ones, without anyone noticing? The actress who fired the gun doesn't seem to have any reason for wanting her dead, but is she hiding something?

Together, Bertie and Hugh must unravel the clues as they interview their suspects. As they do, their own friendship is rekindled. But is there something from their own past that needs to be uncovered? Why did Hugh want to meet up after all these years apart?

The story is set in and around The Palace Pier Theatre in Brighton, which no longer exists. This "lost" theatre has been lovingly recreated in the pages of this book.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I do love Golden Age mysteries. This one, a modern author's take on one of the best tropes for a murder mystery set in 1933 I know of, satisfied me in almost all ways.

The play as the scene of a crime trope is one I genuinely love. All Star Cast, a Golden-Age mystery I read via the Internet Archive, uses the same plot with a few embellishments that, frankly, this book didn't need and doesn't miss. I was enchanted by Bertie, our PoV character, being so absolutely down-to-Earth and commonsensical...I think playwrights absolutely must be both those things or they simply can not do the complex and complicated job of telling a story while moving people around the stage without feeling clanky-creaky-affected. There's so much of that delight present here, even in the descriptions of the action.

What I also loved was Hugh's evident pleasure in Bertie's company. He's a senior policeman...he knows what's at stake in dropping as many hairpins as he does for Bertie to notice! But he still does it, and he still affords Bertie's insights and insider knowledge of the play (which he wrote) and the players (with whom he's acquainted) and theater's many strange, invisible-to-outsiders customs and crotchets that explain how the murder was accomplished.

I believe with all my heart that we'll see these two together in some fashion at a later date. (Especially after Hugh engineers that swim. He clearly wanted a look!)

Why the murder was accomplished, now, that was pure Golden Age stuff. I thought there was nothing left to surprise me in Mysteryland...but there certainly was. The motive for the murder was straight out of Ngaio Marsh! I loved it, because I was reading (by that time) as though I was in 1933. It's just delightful to get that level of buy-in out of an old, tired grouch like me. And to have a real Golden Age detective who is One of Us, a Friend of Dorothy's, a queer gent...appropriately discreet but unmistakably gay, as minor character Teddy proves in his bluff, blokey-jokey way.

I so delighted in this experience. The author's evident love for theater, and his perfectly achieved evocation of a theater in Brighton long gone, came clearly through. It felt as though I was not only in that vanished theater, but in 1933, and among actors exactly like the ones in the story. Murder at the Matinee can't come early enough in 2023 for me!… (more)

closed-circle-mystery, England, murder, murder-investigation, 1930, amateur-sleuth, detective, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, m/m-cozy-mystery, first-in-series, playwright, law-enforcement*****

Bertie is a successful playwright opening a new one in Brighton with a renowned actress with an abrasive personality. It doesn't take long for the reader to root for her to be the murder victim! Bertie is pleasantly surprised to meet up with an old school chum he has corresponded with for some years. That would be Hugh, who has risen in the ranks and is now a rather famous police detective. The play begins. Soon it becomes apparent that the "star" has really been shot dead with a prop gun. Let the sleuthing begin! Good story and engaging characters. I was happy to see that this is a first in series as books usually improve with each new addition (unlike TV and movies)!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Brabinger Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you… (more)