Olive Belgrade finds herself having to defend a friend from school while also searching for a new place to live. A fun read. ( )

This is Book #5 in the High Society Lady Detective series, but the first one I've read. While the antics are amusing, the mystery story itself is rather shallow. There was never a sense of suspense nor an entirely plausible reason for motivating the murder. The author wrote well in depicting the era of the frivolous Bright Young Things. The romp was fun in the sense of a light romance and socialite shenanigans. ( )

Olive Belgrave is invited to stay with her friend Lady Gigi at her sumptuous townhouse, primarily so Olive can meet Gigi’s formidable grandmother and help ease the Dowager Duchess’s fears of being targeted for murder. But when Olive speaks with the Dowager, the old lady denies any such worries, and Olive has few ways to investigate what seems to be nothing at all. However, all is not as it seems and soon, the Dowager is dead of poison - and Gigi is far and away the prime suspect…. This series is very entertaining, set as it is amongst the young aristocrats of early 1920s England - long enough ago since the Great War that the young people can be frivolous again, but always with the consequences of that war shadowing their dying way of life. Here we have a passel of Bright Young Things dashing about London in their posh motor cars in the middle of the night, on a treasure hunt; here we also have Olive determined to maintain her independence in the face of huge challenges. Once again the characters are likeable and their antics are entertaining; I actually figured out the culprit quite early on for a change, but the fact that I was right didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story. Quite fun, recommended. ( )

Olive is displaced again and while needing an apartment her friend Gigi approaches her and asks her to stay with her because she’s worried about her grandmother and wants Olive to investigate. Gigi thinks someone is out to harm the old woman but the dowager is resistant and stages a silly Murder Mystery Party. Things start happening and Gigi becomes the main suspect before Olive can sort it out with help of Jasper’s connections. ( )