Stage Fright

Nell Bray #3

by Gillian Linscott

Although she has spent two terms in Holloway Prison for her suffragette activities, it is amateur sleuthing that's gaining Nell Bray a reputation. She has already solved two murders, and tales of her success are spreading throughout London - and reaching the ears of none other than George Bernard Shaw. The formidable playwright approaches Nell with a case: His leading lady is in danger, and Shaw wants to ensure she makes it safely to curtain time. For the new play, Cindrella Revisited, Shaw has reworked the classic into a scathing attack on English marital law. The plot bears more than a passing resemblance to the life of its star, Bella Flanagan: Like her character, Bella is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man interested only in her money. It seems that her husband, Lord Penwardine, is no more willing to allow his wife to tread the stage than to give her her freedom. Threats and sabotage have followed the actress throughout rehearsals. With Nell's help the play does finally open - but hardly without a hitch. Penwardine's cronies are out in full force, heckling, rioting, doing just about anything to get the production stopped. But would a hateful husband resort to murder? Someone does, and it's up to Nell Bray, indomitable and irrepressible, to find out who.

Genres: Mystery

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

Gillian Linscott introduced her popular suffragette/sleuth, Nell Bray, in the critically acclaimed Sister Beneath the Sheet. A BBC reporter turned full-time writer, she lives in Herefordshire, England.

Linscott has also published several titles under the pseudonym Caro Peacock.

Reviews

[Hemavathy DM Suppiah-Devi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nell Bray is a witty, funny, doesn’t-take-herself seriously, feminist, suffragette, private investigator in a hilarious yet sufficiently engrossing page turner of a whodunnit that features frightfully theatrical characters and some famous cameos, including a sufficiently dramatic George Bernard Shaw. The ending was very good, and yes, I was hoodwinked and red herringed enough not to suspect the Villains. At all.

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

Predictably from the title this episode takes Nell Bray into the world of the theatre and I have to say that though I'm enjoying seeing all these glimpses into different realms of life in the 1910s I'm looking forward to reading a book where Nell is back in the bosom of suffragettedom. In the last couple of these books I've read the suffragette stuff has seemed like a background detail rather than Nell's foreground life.

That's probably not fair though as there's plenty of sexual inequality one way or another in this book even when Nell's not a full time campaigner for the vote. This book delves into the ridiculous inequalities of divorce law as George Bernard Shaw puts on a play Cinderella Revisited (I think this is fictional) in which Cinders escapes from her handsome prince in a hot air balloon and one of the leading actresses harbours desires to do the same.

Linscott's usual attention to period detail without drawing the reader's attention to it coupled with Nell's detective skills is still making this series a pleasure to follow.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK.
Neat twist, a feminist, Nell bray, is 'detective' through friendship with George Bernard Shaw who writes a play about English marital law (divorce or lack of.)
Takes place in 1909.
Added interest of early airplanes.
Pretty good.