The Red-Hot Blues Chanteuse

[b:The Red-Hot Blues Chanteuse: A Viola Vermillion Vaudeville Mystery 195877195 The Red-Hot Blues Chanteuse A Viola Vermillion Vaudeville Mystery Ana Brazil https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1696822412l/195877195.SX50.jpg 197850761] provides a rollicking good romp through the early 1900s in San Francisco! The twists and turns were numerous and unpredictable. Viola Vermillion (formerly Viola Clark) is the center of this murder mystery with her fellow vaudevillians providing a load of color and suspicion.When Viola first hits town with her lover/pianist Stu, she's over the moon having her name on the marquee at the Pantages Theatre. Her enthusiasm is short-lived when she finds her accompanist in the balcony, dead. Suspicion immediately falls on Viola, but she soon realizes, she doesn't know Stu half as well as she thought she did.Troubles mount exponentially. Stu's mysterious past only seems to get murkier the deeper Viola digs. Soon she's wondering how it all connects to her sister's untimely death, her own bout of the flu, and a red notebook. To compound her troubles, her act is about to be cancelled, i.e. her livelihood, if she doesn't find another pianist FAST. She's a little wary of the good-looking Jimmy Harrington, who uncannily knows how to play most of her songs already. Still, she's out of options and hires him against her better judgement.Author [a:Ana Brazil 17217287 Ana Brazil https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1507682441p2/17217287.jpg] captures the time period and location perfectly. Not only does she describe the landmarks of San Francisco with period accuracy, but she give the reader a historically correct perspective of the USA in the post-WWI era. The country, reeling from both the war and the Spanish flu pandemic, gives rise to vaudeville and a lust for entertainment that weary citizens desperately need.Whether you enjoy a first-class mystery or a story with an historical perspective that explores the plight of employees who have no clout, either in the theatre realm or in the labor force, you'll thrive on this book. Crooked munitions tycoon Thaddeus T. Rutherford plays a fierce villain with more hateful characteristics than most. It's no wonder Jimmy keeps his connection to Rutherford under wraps as long as possible.I was delighted to reach the end of this book and find that there would be more mysteries for Viola and Jimmy to solve. The unrequited sexual tension between the two was undeniable. . . but how long could it be denied? Well-placed inconveniences and interruptions kept this reader guessing and ready for the next book in the saga. Well done!