By Rachel Scott McDaniel

Organized crime in the 1920s doesn’t always find its way into Christian Historical Fiction, so I was intrigued when I kept seeing the premises for Rachel Scott McDaniel’s novels. I finally checked out a book from the library and brought it along to keep me occupied in the airport. Was it worth it?

Delvina Kline is trying to make a go of it as a female private investigator. While that kind of a career isn’t considered proper in the 1920s, it certainly raises eyebrows when Vinny is known as the daughter of a mobster and the adopted daughter of NYC’s social elite. But while Vinny carves out her path, her biggest challenge isn’t society’s acceptance or even a tough case, it’s the shocking news that the divorce for her secret marriage was never finalized: she’s still married to detective Kent Brisbane.

Flung together when their cases collide, Vinny and Kent pick up right where they left off with questions and suspicions. But as they track down clues together, they realize that the alleged suicide of a fashion model might go deeper than they thought. And if they solve that mystery, they might just crack the case on what caused their marriage to fail years ago.

Pros: This book is quite the romance trope combo! Friends to lovers to enemies to lovers – and I loved every minute of it (which is saying something, because I don’t usually like romance). The banter between Vinny and Kent as well as the deeper emotions were all well done and believable. The story is more character focused than mystery focused, but when you have such great lead characters, you can’t get enough of them.

I also loved the time frame and setting. You go from debutant balls to speakeasies and from formal dinner parties to slums. Fans of Downton Abbey will be in their element!

This book kept me enamoured through the airport, delays, turbulence, and a 2.5 hour flight.

Cons: I was super confused in the first part of the book. Apparently, this is a spin-off of a previous book. While you can read this book as a stand-alone, it might make more sense to read The Mobster’s Daughter first. That said, I still felt like there were a lot of back story info dumps in the first half. (It’s very hard to keep track of all that when you’re reading in an airport.)

My only other (minor) complaint is that it seemed a bit of a stretch to have the whole mystery tied so neatly to the backstory of a certain character. The ending was good, I was just a bit incredulous.

Bottom Line: The 1920s husband and wife detective team you didn’t know you needed!