Jazz Files by Fiona Veitch Smith

Jazz Files by Fiona Veitch Smith ISBN-13: 9781782641759 Trade Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Lion Fiction Released: Nov. 27, 2015

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
In 1920, twenty-two year old Poppy Denby moves from Northumberland to live with her paraplegic aunt in London. Aunt Dot, a suffragette who was injured in battles with the police in 1910, is a feisty and well-connected lady.

Poppy has always dreamed of being a journalist, and quickly lands a position as an editorial assistant at the Daily Globe. Then one of the paper's writers, Bert Isaacs, dies suddenly--and messily. Poppy and her attractive co-worker, photographer Daniel Rokeby begin to wonder if it wasn't a natural death, but murder. The Globe's editor invites her to dig deeper. Poppy starts sifting through the dead man's files and unearths a major mystery which takes her to France--and into deadly danger.


My Review:
Jazz Files is a historical mystery set in 1920 in London. The historical focus was on what happened to suffragettes in the 1910s. The historical details about daily life and politics were worked into the flow of the story and didn't slow the pacing. Poppy tracked down clues to what happened in 1913 in hopes of exposing corruption, helping someone, and securing a job as a full-time reporter.

Poppy also investigated whether murder had occurred and whodunit. You could guess whodunit from the clues, but the biggest clues were merely implied until Poppy stated them when she figured it all out. The story contained plenty of suspense since Poppy's life was in constant danger. The corrupt people weren't afraid to kill to keep their secrets.

The characters were interesting. Poppy was naive at times, but she's fairly self-assured and generally a nice, brave woman. Despite being a "Christian" book, it might not appeal to some Christians. Poppy doubted the Christian beliefs she was brought up with, drank alcohol in moderation, had a sexually promiscuous best friend, and lived with a homosexual couple.

There were no sex scenes. There was occasional bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.