Dans Mon Catalogue

Paperback, 352 pages

Published by Pushkin Vertigo.

ISBN:: 9781805335795

(1 review)

1876, Victorian London.

The feisty Minnie Ward is scraping a living as a scriptwriter for the Variety Palace Music Hall when the body of her best friend is found in a dingy riverside archway. Minnie is convinced she was murdered and teams up with dashing private detective Albert Easterbrook to find justice.

Together they navigate the streets of London, from high-class gentlemen’s clubs to shady drinking dens. But as the bodies pile up, they must rely on one another if they’re going to track down the killer-and make it out alive...

2 editions

nerd teacher [books] reviewed The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh

Absolutely Enjoyable

5 stars

It's been a while since I really found a book that I just gelled with. Like, really gelled with because of its sense of humour (when it's called for), structure, style, and characters. It's also a bit more distant from the police (though they still exist), including some actual critique of the police and how connections corrupt. It's still pretty minimal, but it's so much nicer in that regard than a lot of other mystery/detective fiction where they highlight how police do so little and then are promptly running to the cops to fix things, while this is more of a tenuous situation of people both using the tools they have (individual cops) and recognising that the whole thing sucks.

Again, it's not full-on anti-police, but it at least recognises aspects that other detective fiction often glosses over... And I appreciate that.

It also indicated that there'd be a romance …

It's been a while since I really found a book that I just gelled with. Like, really gelled with because of its sense of humour (when it's called for), structure, style, and characters. It's also a bit more distant from the police (though they still exist), including some actual critique of the police and how connections corrupt. It's still pretty minimal, but it's so much nicer in that regard than a lot of other mystery/detective fiction where they highlight how police do so little and then are promptly running to the cops to fix things, while this is more of a tenuous situation of people both using the tools they have (individual cops) and recognising that the whole thing sucks.

Again, it's not full-on anti-police, but it at least recognises aspects that other detective fiction often glosses over... And I appreciate that.

It also indicated that there'd be a romance within it, and I was very... whew. I was hopeful at the beginning that that wouldn't be the focus or shift into the focus, and it doesn't. It's very cute and sweet, but it's not displacing the mystery. I was afraid it would, but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't.