#BlogTour Old Cases New Colours by Madalyn Morgan

 

It's my turn on the BlogTour Old Cases New Colours by Madalyn Morgan.

About the Author

I was brought up in a pub in a small market town called Lutterworth. For as long as I can remember, my dream was to be an actress and a writer. The pub was a great place for an aspiring actress and writer to live with so many characters to study and accents to learn. I was offered Crossroads the first time around. However, my mother wanted me to have a ‘proper’ job that I could fall back on if I needed to, so I did a hairdressing apprenticeship. Eight years later, aged twenty-four, I gave up a successful salon and wig-hire business in the theatre for a place at East 15 Drama College and a career as an actress, working in Repertory theatre, the West End, film and television.

In 1995, with fewer parts for older actresses, I gave up acting. I taught myself to touch-type, completed a two-year correspondence course with The Writer’s Bureau and began writing articles and presenting radio.

 In 2010, after living in London for thirty-six years, I moved back to Lutterworth. I swapped two window boxes and a mortgage for a garden and the freedom to write. Since then, I have written nine novels. The first four, The Dudley Sisters’ Saga, tell the stories of four sisters in World War 2. My current novel, Old Cases, New Colours, is a thriller/detective story set in 1960. I am writing Christmas book - Christmas Applause - and a Memoir; a collection of short stories, articles, poems, photographs and character breakdowns from my days as an actress.

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About the book

Sick of working in a world of spies and bureaucracy, Ena Green, nee Dudley, leaves the Home Office and starts her own investigating agency.

Working for herself she can choose which investigations to take and, more importantly, which to turn down. While working on two investigations, Ena is called as a prosecution witness in the Old Bailey trial of a cold-blooded killer who she exposed as a spy the year before.

Review

This is the ninth book in the Dudley Green series and can be read as a standalone novel, but I am sure readers will want to go back to the beginning of the series if they enjoy this one.

Formidable Ena is putting her mark in a world predominantly inhabited by men and in that era the world of paid sleuthing is still cloaked in shades of Sam Spade. No case is too small or too big as previous adventures prove without a doubt, and it is fair to say that Ena and her trusty sidekick Artie don't shy away from the more lethal side of investigative work.

Seeing as this book is quite far into the series there is always an expectation of some kind of recap to introduce the characters or if the previous events have any impact on the book you're reading. In this case it would be the suicides and how Ena feels about each of the deaths for instance. 

Aside from that I thought the recap at the beginning was a bit much - far too much information crammed into a short space. A prologue or introduction would work better and keeping some of it separate from the plot at hand.

It's a quaint cosy historical crime series with a bit of a Tuppence and Tommy flair, and a family affair to boot. 

Buy Old Cases New Colours at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.