Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and author Emily Organ for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

After a few books that were quite serious, I needed something light and fun. What better than a murder mystery in Victorian London? Okay, maybe not quite the “light and fun” I was looking for, but Limelight was an escape and a relatively quick read.

Penny Green is a reporter in London. It’s not a career that is open to women, although there are a few female reporters around. Penny works at the Morning Express and hears early on about the death of actress Lizzie Dixie, who was a friend of hers. The only problem is that Lizzie supposedly died five years before in the sinking of the SS Princess Alice on the Thames.

Scotland Yard sends James Blakely to investigate the murder, and he asks Penny to help him out since she is likely acquainted with most of the suspects. The two make a formidable team as they try to unravel why Lizzie Dixie faked her death as well as who might have known she was still alive to kill her.

I had to check a few times to see if this was the first book in a series. Apparently, this was first published in 2017 and has just been re-released by Storm Publishing. While it is the first of the series, it has the feel to it that there were stories before this about Penny, her sister, and her father who disappeared in the Amazon. Some of that impacts this story as Lizzie DIxie financed and organized a search party to look for Penny’s father after his disappearance.

The mystery is good, although I figured out part of the mystery early on. Lizzie also moonlighted as a courtesan for wealthy men, which may have led her to being targeted for things she knew. It’s an intriguing mystery that goes in many different directions and keeps the reader on their toes.

Although women were starting to make breakthroughs at this time, it was most definitely still a man’s world. She’s marginalized at the newspaper after asking tough questions of the head of Scotland Yard. Even though she’s helping with the investigation, a male reporter is assigned to the story. Much is made of her age and the fact that she’s not married. At various times she’s an “old maid” or a “spinster.” There seems to be some romantic tension between her and Inspector Blakely, but then that changes as well. It would seem that Penny’s life would be defined by who she marries, and without that, she’s an object of derision, even from her sister.

There are enough red herrings to keep me guessing here, and I am hoping some of that is built upon in subsequent stories. I did learn quite a bit of history. I’d never heard of the SS Princess Alice, which was a real disaster that took over 600 lives. This was a time in England when even affluent housewives were looking to change their position in the world and demanding rights typically only extended to men. The right to vote was not their only goal. As seen here, women wanted to be able to dress comfortably and not be ostracized for it. Things we take for granted these many years later were a real fight at the time.

I enjoyed Limelight quite a bit and have put other books in this series on my reading list. It was informative as well as being fun and escapist. The characters are interesting and the descriptions of the time make it easy to imagine being there watching what was happening.