Lead Review (The Case of The Singer and the Showgirl)

• Book: The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl
• Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
• Author: Lisa Hall

Review Author: tripfiction

The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl is the second book by Lisa Hall to feature Lily Jones. Lily is a 25-year-old Londoner who is obsessed with movies from the golden era of Hollywood. Somehow she has found a way to travel back in time and she has previously saved a celebrated movie star from being murdered back in 1949. Having returned to the present, she misses the glamour of the world of films but also, perhaps more so, a certain suave bartender called Louis. With her personal life in London looking rocky she wistfully wonders whether she could go back. She is drawn to researching the people she met to find out what happened next for them, only to discover that one woman – Evelyn – was murdered in 1953. Suddenly a return to the past is critical – she could save a life.

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Lisa Hall writes convincingly about the Las Vegas of the 1950s, which was extraordinarily glamorous and innovative for the period, but of course less so than the LA that Lily knows from the 21^st century. She has to keep remembering not to divulge things that she knows from the future to the friends she is with in the 1950s, and this leads to a certain amount of wry humour, which I enjoyed. There’s a lot of name dropping of famous movie stars, who have cameo roles. The invented characters fit well into the story and have personalities of their own.

I loved the timeslip adventures I read as a child and so the premise of this book was appealing. Hall goes into great detail about the settings and the characters and perhaps I was impatient but, while I found it fascinating, I really wanted to pick up the pace of the plot. I was also at a slight disadvantage, not having read the earlier book in the series. I think that might have made a difference, though this book does work as a stand-alone novel.

Recommended as a light and entertaining read, which is remarkably upbeat for a crime novel.

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