One of the recent trends in publishing has been stories that are genre-related, but less genre than the traditional. This makes them popular with those who wouldn’t normally read (fill in genre of your choice.) This is one of them, I think. It has many of the elements of a traditional crime novel but is set in an alternate London of 1958. It has some strange inventions and peculiar places beneath the city of London, but other than that is fairly mundane.
From the publisher: London 1958: Elaborately disguised and hidden deep beneath the city’s streets lies the world of Miss Brickett’s, a secret detective agency. From traversing deceptive escape rooms full of baited traps and hidden dangers, to engineering almost magical mechanical gadgets, apprentice detectives at Miss Brickett’s undergo rigorous training to equip them with the skills and knowledge they will need to solve the mysteries that confound London’s police force.
But nothing can prepare 23-year-old apprentice Marion Lane for what happens after the arrest of her friend and mentor, Frank, on suspicion of murder: he tasks Marion with clearing his name and saving his life. Her investigation will place Marion and her friends in great peril as they venture into the forbidden maze of uncharted tunnels that surround Miss Brickett’s. Being discovered out of bounds means immediate dismissal, but that is the least of Marion’s problems when she discovered that the tunnels contain more than just secrets…
Allowing for the steampunky inventions, the crime plot is straight out of the Miss Marple template. There has been a murder at the secret offices where young apprentice Marion Lane works, with the death of a fairly unpopular worker.
As we should expect, there are a number of potential suspects and Marion notices strange things going on, which may (or may not) be connected to the crime. Miss Brickett’s wants the matter sorted quickly, as it seems like a simple case of murder. Marion’s friend Frank is accused of the murder, and Marion with the help of some of her other colleagues is determined to prove his innocence.
This is a debut novel, and it shows in places. Willberg does well in her debut novel to juggle secret societies with dastardly crime and include a light romance to great cumulative effect. Marion as the inexperienced apprentice is endearingly entertaining, and it is refreshing to find a character that doesn’t lapse into conveniently sudden stupidity, fainting or shrieking. The other characters by turn are a little nondescript, there often to serve a purpose but little else, to the point where some of them almost become interchangeable, though the budding romance between Marion and her colleague Frank is charming and appropriately discreet.
On the down-side, there are elements that along the way seemed to be there as convenient plot elements which jarred my suspension of disbelief. In the traditions of Doctor Who there’s a lot of running about in corridors at the end, and most of the mystery is explained in a great information-dump at the end, although this is in the tradition of the crime novels that the author is trying to emulate. The solution to the mystery is OK, though I found that it was pretty obvious who the villain was fairly early on.
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder reminded me of Jodi Taylor’s St. Mary’s Chronicles with its engaging characters and rapid speed of delivery. Despite my quibbles, there’s a lot here to like, and fans of those books will no doubt love this one for the same reasons. As is often with debut novels, it is a little flawed, but great entertainment – just don’t think about it too deeply!
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T A Willberg
Published by Trapeze in May 2021
ISBN: 978 0 857 82846 0
322 pages
