Log in with Facebook 
Hamish DeLuca has spent most of his life trying to hide the anxiety that appears at the most inopportune times -- including during his first real court case as a new lawyer. Determined to rise above his father’s expectations, Hamish runs away to Boston where his cousin, Luca Valari, is opening a fashionable nightclub in Scollay Square. When he meets his cousin's “right hand man,” Reggie, Hamish wonders if his dreams for a more normal life might be at hand. Regina “Reggie” Van Buren, heir to a New Haven fortune, has fled fine china, small talk, and the man her parents expect her to marry. Determined to make a life as the self-sufficient city girl she’s seen in her favorite Jean Arthur and Katharine Hepburn pictures, Reggie runs away to Boston, where she finds an easy secretarial job with the suave Luca Valari. But as she and Hamish work together in Luca’s glittering world, they discover a darker side to the smashing Flamingo nightclub. When a corpse is discovered at the Flamingo, Reggie and Hamish quickly learn there is a vast chasm between the haves and the have-nots in 1937 Boston—and that there’s an underworld that feeds on them both. As Hamish is forced to choose between his conscience and loyalty to his beloved cousin, the unlikely sleuthing duo work to expose a murder before the darkness destroys everything they’ve worked to build.
Amazon.com
Hamish DeLuca is a Canadian lawyer struggling with crippling anxiety in the 1930s. After discovering his job at the law firm was only made possible as a favor to his father, Hamish is "humiliated into adventure". He decides to take up his cousin Luca Valari's offer to come work for him in Boston. Entrepreneur Luca is opening up The Flamingo, a nightclub, and says he could use Hamish's legal skills on the business end of things. Newly situated in Boston, Hamish begins to develop an interest in Luca's new secretary, Regina "Reggie" Van Buren. Reggie and Hamish's friendship grows deeper as they try to work out all the mysteries surrounding Luca. Who are all these strangers showing up at odd hours asking about his whereabouts? Where does Luca really make his money? Is The Flamingo meant to be a front for more illicit business? Is his carefree personality a mask for a much darker, more devious man? Hamish and Reggie decide to investigate, (on the DL of course). When a murder does occur at the nightclub, our characters suddenly find themselves getting a crash introduction to Boston's criminal underworld scene.
The plot has a slow start as the reader is made to wait for all the key players to get in the same scenes to interact with each other ----- just getting Hamish and Reggie in the same room for the first time takes about 70 pages, nearly 200 before the murder happens. Much of the book is also bogged down with uninteresting details. It felt like there was a lot of repetitive material within the text.
Regarding the theme of debilitating anxiety: author Rachel McMillan writes at the end that she herself suffers from the condition and wanted to use this series, in part, to normalize rather than stigmatize the topic. While I can appreciate this, I have to say I didn't feel the presence of the subject all that much within Hamish's story. There's a great scene at the very start where the reader is immediately thrust into the reality of his symptoms. But for the bulk of the book, it's hardly given a mention until we get into the final chapters, where it almost feels as if McMillan caught herself while writing and was trying to bring the topic back around last minute.
So why keep reading? For Luca's story, mostly. I mean, the characters in general are fun (it's just their world that fell a bit flat for me). I especially liked the interactions between Hamish & Luca (Luca nicknames him "Cicero")... that brotherly kind of bond that shows up in their banter... though at times, that too gets a tad stale & repetitive. What really drove the story for me was the mystery of Luca's true motives behind his actions. Was he really involved in organized crime or was there a perfectly innocent explanation to all the questions around him? Why are there already so many angry business calls for Reggie to field before the club is even officially open? Whenever questioned, Luca skillfully evades ever giving a straight answer... but why?
For Hollywood Silver Screen buffs, there are several classic film references incorporated into the plot. Not surprisingly, most of them being a nod to the Nick & Nora / Thin Man detective series of films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. NOTE: There is SPOILER material for the film Platinum Blonde starring Jean Harlow and Loretta Young.
William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick & Nora of the Thin Man series
The Van Buren & DeLuca detective agency is only just getting going by the end of this first book, so I'm curious to see how not only the business but the personal friendship develops between these two down the road. Book 2, Murder in the City of Liberty, is set to be released May 2019.
FTC Disclaimer: TNZ Fiction Guild kindly provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.
