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A review by kitnotmarlowe
A Deadly Endeavor by Jenny Adams
3.5
I read a lot of historical mysteries, specifically a lot of historical mysteries set during the 1920s, and a lot of these hit the same vibes if not the same plot points. A Deadly Endeavor isn't anything radical, but it's enjoyable enough to put it above some truly dire books of the same ilk. This is mostly due to a fact that our protagonist, Edie Shippen, gives off insane Phryne Fisher energy. I've read a lot of mysteries where the lead is a spunky rich girl with hidden depths and Edie is perhaps the only one who manages to capture how batshit insane rich people were/are. She's deranged, I love her. Like a bull in a china shop and a hamster on speed at the same time. Gilbert is fine, the romance is fine. I'm sure people who like grumpy/sunshine romances and tortured but fundamentally good single dads will have a ball with this, but it isn't the sort of thing which makes or breaks the story for me. I could do without the romance subplot; I'm glad that Gil & Evie didn't actually hook up.
The setting is exciting mostly because it's not NYC, Chicago, or LA, where most 1920s fiction is set. I occasionally forgot it was set in Philly but that's mostly because I'm not American so a lot of major cities blend together in a sort of metropolitan sludge to me. I think Adams could have gone even harder on how corrupt the city was, especially with Edie's father being a city councilman. There's still time for that in future books. I also don't want to say that I'm impressed with Adams for including two whole named Black characters whose race plays a role in how they are perceived in the world, considering that Philadelphia's Black population doubled due to the Great Migration. The bar is on the floor, but you would be surprised how many authors are doing the limbo under it. Based on how Dr. Harrison and Augusta were introduced, I have hope that we will see them periodically in future books. One of Gilbert's coworkers is gay, and I assume we'll see him again. Communist artist Colleen is also a lesbian. Maybe Jenny Adams doesn't know this yet, but I do. Her Sylvia Townsend Warner Slay...
This has the goofiest villain motivation/reveal I've ever read and believe me I have read some goofy-ass mysteries. And yes, this includes the mystery where multiple people were killed by having giant slabs of granite shoved in their mouths and the one where a guy builds a fucked-up house with the sole purpose of murdering someone via freezing a knife in an icicle and sliding it diagonally from one corner of the house to the other via a ventilation hole. Do you know how hard it is to write something goofier than Murder in the Crooked House on purpose and play it extremely straight? I thought it was impossible. Turns out it's not.
So Edie, our protagonist, is/was in love with her twin sister's fiance, Theo. Four years before the story starts, Theo's sister, Sarah, disgraced herself by marrying our our protagonist, Gilbert, and then died in childbirth. As if Theo and Gilbert do not have enough beef already, they were in the same unit in WWI when some shit went down. Theo's evil plan involves committing a bunch of murders, taking body-parts from those murders, and Frankenstein-ing Sarah back to life with electricity.
This would already be incredibly silly without the fact that there's also a massive geomagnetic storm happening and there are auroras all over Philadelphia. Theo dies by electrocution in part because the solar system is going haywire. It's bananas. I respect how silly it is. Unfortunately, the silliness undermines the emotional climax of the novel. At no point are Edie and Gilbert like "hey, Theo, I don't think Ship of Theseus-ing your sister's corpse will work, this is an extremely goofy plan." They play it dead straight rather than pointing out that this is the plan of a man driven mad by grief, when it would have been SO easy to include a single line about how silly this is.
I wouldn't say that the ending jumps the shark or ruins the book. I think it's very silly and may make you giggle but the rest of the story is solid enough that you can overlook the end as debut shakiness. There are also three separate mentions of Edie's shoes while she's chasing Theo. Three mentions in multiple chapters about her sensible footwear. Edie, girl, priorities. I will be the first person checking out the sequel at my local library in May.
The setting is exciting mostly because it's not NYC, Chicago, or LA, where most 1920s fiction is set. I occasionally forgot it was set in Philly but that's mostly because I'm not American so a lot of major cities blend together in a sort of metropolitan sludge to me. I think Adams could have gone even harder on how corrupt the city was, especially with Edie's father being a city councilman. There's still time for that in future books. I also don't want to say that I'm impressed with Adams for including two whole named Black characters whose race plays a role in how they are perceived in the world, considering that Philadelphia's Black population doubled due to the Great Migration. The bar is on the floor, but you would be surprised how many authors are doing the limbo under it. Based on how Dr. Harrison and Augusta were introduced, I have hope that we will see them periodically in future books. One of Gilbert's coworkers is gay, and I assume we'll see him again. Communist artist Colleen is also a lesbian. Maybe Jenny Adams doesn't know this yet, but I do. Her Sylvia Townsend Warner Slay...
This has the goofiest villain motivation/reveal I've ever read and believe me I have read some goofy-ass mysteries. And yes, this includes the mystery where multiple people were killed by having giant slabs of granite shoved in their mouths and the one where a guy builds a fucked-up house with the sole purpose of murdering someone via freezing a knife in an icicle and sliding it diagonally from one corner of the house to the other via a ventilation hole. Do you know how hard it is to write something goofier than Murder in the Crooked House on purpose and play it extremely straight? I thought it was impossible. Turns out it's not.
This would already be incredibly silly without the fact that there's also a massive geomagnetic storm happening and there are auroras all over Philadelphia. Theo dies by electrocution in part because the solar system is going haywire. It's bananas. I respect how silly it is. Unfortunately, the silliness undermines the emotional climax of the novel. At no point are Edie and Gilbert like "hey, Theo, I don't think Ship of Theseus-ing your sister's corpse will work, this is an extremely goofy plan." They play it dead straight rather than pointing out that this is the plan of a man driven mad by grief, when it would have been SO easy to include a single line about how silly this is.
I wouldn't say that the ending jumps the shark or ruins the book. I think it's very silly and may make you giggle but the rest of the story is solid enough that you can overlook the end as debut shakiness. There are also three separate mentions of Edie's shoes while she's chasing Theo. Three mentions in multiple chapters about her sensible footwear. Edie, girl, priorities. I will be the first person checking out the sequel at my local library in May.