Saturday, January 6, 2018

Book Review of Limelight by Emily Organ

Goodreads Summary:  London, 1883. Actress Lizzie Dixie drowned in the River Thames, so how was she murdered five years later in Highgate Cemetery?
Intrepid Fleet Street reporter Penny Green was a friend of Lizzie’s, and Scotland Yard needs her help. Does Penny unwittingly hold clues to Lizzie’s mysterious death? Penny must work with Inspector James Blakely to investigate the worlds of theatre, showmen, and politicians in search of the truth.

But who is following her? And who is sending her threatening letters?

Penny is about to discover that Lizzie’s life was more complicated, and dangerous than she could ever have imagined.

Goodreads Rating: 3.79 with 756 ratings

Genre Listing: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Victorian

Get the Book: Amazon

2018 Reading Challenge: #10 - A book with a one-word title - Reading Challenge

Reading goal: 1/30

Review:

Woohoo! The first review of 2018. I've decided that for the 2018 reading challenge I'll be skipping around. I had initially thought I'd try to work the levels one at a time, but I tend to binge read things that may not fit into the levels. The hard part is going to be to make myself read certain ones. 

I've been eying Limelight by Emily Organ for a month or two now, and I'm glad I finally decided to give it a go. I had a hard time putting it down. I liked how Penny was somewhat odd for her time, seemingly comfortable being alone, bookish, working when most women were at home with children. I felt like she seemed mildly indifferent to the sexism around her. I got the impression I got was she expected it because of the times but didn't really let it negatively affect her.

I was really intrigued by the Woman's society Penny's sister Eliza was apart of. I'm obsessed with different periods fashion trends. I loved how they discussed reforming their dress, and even designed unique skirts to ride bicycles, and how it was somewhat of a scandal. I also appreciated the style of writing and inclusion of slang. I feel like some of the dialect is how people would actually speak in 1883.

As far as the mystery goes, I really like how Organ provided multiple suspects. I feel like a lot of mysteries give you one or two suspects, and then the murderer may or may not be one of those suspects. I feel like at any given time Emily Organ provided readers with four or five likely suspects. It was nice because I didn't really know where the ending was going to go, but it was one that wasn't so farfetched based on the case presented.

I'll be honest, I was not expecting much from Limelight, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I downloaded Rookery, the second in the series right after I finished it. That's already proving to be excellent as well. I definitely recommend Limelight to anyone who wants a decent 'Who done it?' with a Victorian flare.




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