Ilil Arbel

Russian émigré couturier Vera Koska is a fake. No, she’s a real high-end fashion designer — one of the best in London, in fact. No, Madame Koska’s intriguing past has been fashioned out of nearly whole cloth, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Madame Koska is a clever businesswoman through and through; however, she’s still kind to her employees and fair to tradesmen and suppliers. She’s worked her way up from her working-class roots into a successful, poised, cultured lady — something show more particularly hard to do in class-bound Europe at the turn of the 20th century. But when someone breaks into her new atelier, Madame Koska realizes that she — and her closest friend, a real Russian countess — are the only ones who know enough of the real past to sleuth out what’s really going on.

I loved Madame Koska almost from the start, and author Ilil Arbel has created an unflappable heroine with cleverness, courage and heart. I can’t wait to read the sequel, Madame Koska and Le Spectre de la Rose.

Some trivia. Madame Koska and the Imperial Brooch reminds me of one of those High Renaissance Dutch paintings in which a subject looks at himself looking into a mirror looking into a mirror. The character of Madame Koska is based on a mystery series written by a character in Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire Chonicles, itself a continuation of Anthony Trollope’s initial six-novel Chronicles of Barsetshire. It’s fun trivia, but readers will thoroughly enjoy the prescient Madame Koska even without that knowledge. I, myself, didn’t know anything about it until I read the introduction. I think that, like me, they’ll be eager for a sequel.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and BHC Press in exchange for an honest review. show less

I love Ballet, and I love mysteries. And, I am a costumer. And, this book came through on all three aspects. It was an excellent story about life in a ballet company, had a murder most mysterious, and the costumes were as exquisite as the characterizations!

Well, that was fun! I love the idea of this character - a dress designer and a spy. The descriptions of clothing, especially the wedding dress were evocative. And the plot raced along.

I absolutely adored Madame Koska and the Imperial Brooch so much. I did like Madame Koska and Le Spectre de la Rose, but nearly as much. The story seemed much thinner than that of the debut novel of this fun series. I feel guilty writing this, as it is clear that the author did considerably research into the Ballet Russe, on which the ballet company in this second novel is based. Still worth a read, but don’t have too high an expectation.

Some trivia. The ballet Le Spectre of the Rose is an show more actual ballet, pretty much as described in the novel. The dancer, of course, was not the fictional Russian dancer Victor Parizhsky, but the inimitable Vaslav Nijinsky. YouTube has a wonderful version of this ballet danced by Mikhail Baryshnikov in all his youthful splendor. show less