By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Frances Palmer and Jack Sullivan are the current heirs to those crime solving duo of lovers of the past like Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, The Thin Man’s Nick and Nora Charles, Moonlighting’s David Addison and Maddie Hayes, Hart to Hart’s Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, Bones’ Temperance Brennan and Seely Booth, Castle’s Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, and Miss Scarlet and The Duke’s Eliza Scarlet and William “Duke” Wellington (some have argued Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson). Jack and Frances are the stars of Carmen Radtke’s Jack and Frances Mysteries and its current volume, Murder Makes Waves.
Jack is a nightclub owner and WWI veteran in 1931, Adelaide, Australia. Frances is the assistant to her uncle, Salvatore “Sal” Bernardo, a magician and vaudevillian. The engaged couple and Uncle Sal are invited to visit Jack's mother in England via SS Empress of the Sea. What should be a peaceful voyage becomes fatal as one of the passengers, Lawrence Vaughn is murdered during a masquerade ball and Evie, a singer and dancer that the couple befriended, is accused of the crime.
Jack and Frances are certainly the best part of the novel. They sparkle with wit, observation, persistence, and an old world charm that can be found in Historical Cozy Mysteries. They are the types who brilliantly counter each other in personality, temperament, and sleuthing style to make a great team.
Frances is the outgoing, spirited, vivacious one. Her natural charm and empathy allows her to bond instantly with strangers as she does with Evie and various other people on the boat. As a performer, she is able to play certain roles to glean information and ferret out the criminal.
Frances is from a working class background so many of her observations are based on common sense wisdom and street savviness. She is the kind of woman who thrives in the 1920’s and ‘30’s, a time period that allows women to be free, independent, and outspoken.
Frances is the color flying around in circles, while Jack is the steady pole that keeps them anchored. His staid but paternal demeanor reveals the trust and loyalty that someone in trouble needs, such as when Merryweather, a young steward, is wrongfully accused of theft. His dry wit and observation allows him to notice details like another person's behavior or clues that other people miss. As a nightclub owner, his organizational and leadership skills allow him to put the details together to find a conclusion.
Jack’s experience as a war veteran acquainted him with the darker aspects of human nature and survival instincts that desperate people form. While he is Conservative in some respects such as wanting marriage and a home, he is open minded enough to accept others points of view, especially in these modern times.
The rest of the characters are a pretty colorful cast. Uncle Sal is a delightful comic relief, a charming, bombastic ham who probably is looking for stage scenery to chew. His romance with Mildred, another passenger, is both humorous and heartwarming.
While on the ocean liner, the trio meet a stunning array of wealthy dowagers, dim upperclassmen, devious debutantes, and sassy showgirls, characters who would be just as at home in a PG Wodehouse short story as they would in an Agatha Christie novel.
In fact, Frances herself makes the comparison when she observes Mildred with her nephew Tom. However Mildred is not the shrieking harpy that is Wodehouse's Aunt Agatha. Instead she is a warm, earthy, cool aunt more like Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Dahlia. While Tom has his naive dizzy moments worthy of Wooster, he actually is also quiet and has his own moments of intelligence.
Other characters also have interesting moments. Lawrence starts out as a popular lady's man until his darker, more nefarious deeds are uncovered revealing a narcissistic sociopathic soul underneath. Evie plays the flighty effervescent vivacious flapper but she also shows great vulnerability about her predicament. Other characters have great moments which reveal much about their public personas and inner selves.
Murder Makes Waves is a worthy volume for lovers of Historical Fiction especially set in the 1920’s and 30’s, Cozy Mysteries, and any type of novel with a charming thrill seeking witty and highly romantic duo at the forefront.
