Ask Me No Questions: A Lady Dunbridge Mystery

Murder mysteries seem to work so much better in the past: No DNA or surveillance footage to ruin the drama, just wits and big hats. Ah, the good ol’ days, 1907, to be specific.

Lady Philomena Dunbridge, newly widowed and not even thirty, leaves England for the excitement of turn-of-the-century New York. Naturally, a corpse turns up rather quickly, a corpse belonging to the horse-loving (that is, shady underworld player) husband of Lady D’s American friend Bev.

Shelley Noble’s Gilded Age whodunit is a fun read, but in the long tradition of early twentieth-century society ladies solving crimes, which stretches back at least to the Baroness Orczy’s Lady Molly, Lady Dunbridge isn’t quite top-tier.

I’ve heard a few charitable comparisons to Miss Phryne Fisher. I don’t know about that.