Brighton Belle (A Mirabelle Bevan Mystery) [Kindle Edition]

This `cosy noir' (author's description) mystery introduces us to Mirabelle Bevan, whose WW2 was spent in the secret service. Seven years later she is bored, bereaved and living in Brighton - enough to make anyone seek distraction and excitement when it's on offer. It comes to her through the office door of the debt-collection agency she works for, a one-man/one woman band whose one man goes missing. And it does start rather `cosy' but it warms up!
The period is early 1950s and the author is at pains to immerse the reader in that period of history - a little disconcerting for those who actually remember when you could fill the tank of your car for ten shillings as long as you had the petrol coupons. (NB I don't - well not quite!) In many ways this is still the Brighton of Brighton Rock but this novel does not have the same dark intensity as Graham Greene's novel or depict quite such a crime-ridden, morally starved atmosphere. However there are certainly plenty of morally bankrupt characters, sinister plot-twists and shock tactics to keep the reader turning the page. It starts like an Agatha Christie story but towards the middle I found myself thinking of John Buchan and in some ways Mirabelle is a female version of Buchan's Richard Hannay, especially when she finds herself in a railway compartment with unpredictable company!
I won't give anything more away but will explain my reasons for awarding 4 stars. I admit to rarely giving 5 because I think they get splashed about too much, which dilutes their effect when a book truly deserves them. So don't get me wrong, I definitely recommend this as an exciting and intriguing introduction to a new detective character who I hope will grow and develop into a 5 star attraction during the series Sara Sheridan promises to give her.

I have read both historical novels by Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin and The Secret of the Sands and I really enjoyed them. When her new novel came out I couldn't wait to read it. It is a departure from her usual period of history but its a time I find fascinating, post war with all the austerity and social history of the early fifties.
Mirabelle Bevan is an elegant and beautiful woman, she was in the secret service during the war, working in an office, not an active agent but involved in intelligence just the same. After the war she moves from London to Brighton to try and forget her past. We will find out about her past life as the story unfolds. Now In Brighton she has a different kind office job, working for Big Ben McGuigan a dept collector. When Ben is out the office a dodgy London spiv comes in looking for him to collect a dept from a young woman who has moved to Brighton. Mirabelle takes on the job. We are then taken into a world of ex-SS and Nazi stolen gold. From the plush Grand Hotel to the Race track from Brighton Pier to London's underworld. There is intrigue, sex and red hot violence. With a cast of well drawn characters. I love the writers quirky style, so when the violence comes along it hits you right in the guts. I thoroughly enjoyed Brighton Belle and read it in quick time. This is part one of the series and I'm looking forward to more from Mirabelle and her sidekick Vesta!

This is the first Sara Sheridan that I've read, and it seems it is her debut into detective writing.

I would like to see the characters fleshed out in the next book. I found the gender and racial bias interesting - was it that "old fashioned" in the fifties? Mirabelle may have made mistakes that a field agent would not, but she was a wartime desk jockey very much dealing in theory, and I would imagine that diving into field work would in fact be quite disorienting and would indeed result in just the sort of mistakes on the ground that other reviewers found unacceptable. She did seem to learn from her mistakes.

I think that this is an easy reading thriller, and I enjoyed the period background. I think the writer has the potential to improve on her style and produce a good next novel in the series.