Chaos at Carnegie Hall by Kelly Oliver (Tuesday Intros and Teaser Tuesday)

 

Title: Chaos at Carnegie Hall 

Author: Kelly Oliver

Publication: 15 November 2022

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

Can Fiona catch a killer and find a decent cup of tea before her mustache wax melts?

1917. New York.

Notorious spy, Fredrick Fredricks, has invited Fiona to Carnegie Hall to hear a famous soprano. It’s an opportunity the War Office can’t turn down. Fiona and Clifford are soon on their way, but not before Fiona is saddled with chaperon duties for Captain Hall’s niece. Is Fiona a spy or a glorified babysitter?

From the minute Fiona meets the soprano aboard the RMS Adriatic it’s treble on the high C’s. Fiona sees something—or someone—thrown overboard, and then she overhears a chemist plotting in German with one of her own countrymen!

And the trouble doesn’t stop when they disembark. Soon Fiona is doing time with a group of suffragettes and investigating America’s most impressive inventor Thomas Edison.

When her number one suspect turns up dead at the opera and Fredrick Fredricks is caught red-handed, it looks like it’s finally curtains for the notorious spy.

But all the evidence points to his innocence. Will Fiona change her tune and clear her nemesis’ name? Or will she do her duty? And just what is she going to do with the pesky Kitty Lane? Not to mention swoon-worthy Archie Somersby . . .

If Fiona’s going to come out on top, she’s going to have to make the most difficult decision of her life: the choice between her head and her heart.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I've been having a hard time really getting into this one. I've been battling a nasty bug/cold/general blahness for a couple of weeks now and that may have something to do with it. After all, I absolutely adored the first three Fiona Figg books and this one I've been reading very VERY slowly for a week already and I'm still not even halfway through.

It's not a bad book. The characters I adored from the first three are all back. Fiona, the incorrigible Clifford, the mysterious Fredrick Fredricks, and the so-called swoon-worthy Archie Somersby .... whom I'm still very much questionable about. There's just something about him that niggles at me and I don't think I trust him.

But wait ... isn't this a "brand new cozy mystery series" like they claim?

No. 

It really isn't. 

 THIS IS NOT A NEW SERIES.

I don't care what they say. If you don't know the background from the first three Fiona Figg books, you'll probably feel like you're missing something.... and you are. Just tossing in "Kitty Lane" doesn't make it a new series .... it makes it a continuation with a new character added to the mix .... one who is currently sitting on the fence with Archie Somersby for me.

Read the others first.

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.

 

 

 

 

The Fiona Figg Mysteries by Kelly Oliver (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

It's a little different this week for me since I'm doing three-in-one ... but since they all go together and I've been reading them back to back (to back), it works for my brain. I started the first book, Betrayal at Ravenswick, on New Year's Eve. 

We're introduced to newly divorced Fiona who works as a filing clerk for the British Intelligence War Office's Room 40 (which later becomes MI-5 ... and then MI-6). She's amongst code-breakers and espionage planners and when one of the men undercover gets injured, she volunteers to step in ... disguised as a man. She had always wanted to be an actress growing up but was told by a drama teacher that "with that face, you'll never make it as an actress. You'd be better off putting on trousers and passing yourself off as a man." 

So she does.

She travels to to Ravenswick disguised as a male doctor (and occasionally a maid) to find out whatever she can about a Fredrick Fredricks -- huntsman, journalist, possible spy and possible murderer. Of course, she also gets involved in a murder investigation and more than one tricky situation that she is absolutely unprepared for. She does well enough, though, that they let her continue to trail Fredricks to Paris .... and the second book, High Treason at the Grand Hotel.

In the second book we get to see Paris in 1917, more of Fiona's disguises (which she isn't supposed to be using), and further witness Fiona's knack for sticking her nose in to mysteries unrelated to her mission. We do see quite a bit of Fredricks and even Mata Hari. And then the chase continues to Villainy in Vienna. 

Right now I'm only just past the half-way point of the book but we've already met Emperor Charles and Empress Zita, Albert Einstein's first wife, and Anna Sacher of the famed Hotel Sacher (and daughter-in-law of the creator of the amazing Sacher Torte). Fiona has actually been invited to Vienna by Fredricks for the Emperor's birthday ball. The War Office sends her with Clifford Douglas as a bodyguard/fake husband/sidekick/nuisance. He has appeared in each book and is actually old friends with Fredricks which makes things a bit awkward.

And someone was just killed at the ball so I'm going to hit publish and continue reading and I highly recommend that you do the same. It's a fun series full of history and intrigue and my beloved snark. I do so love some added snark.

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"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.