The Jade Tiger

Recently widowed opera singer and nightclub owner Penelope Harris has recently left Singapore to return to her family in prohibition era New York. Unfortunately, she's been followed by her husband's mistress who is hell bent on making her life as difficult as possible. With a cast of many colourful characters and filled with snappy dialogue, I found this a decent mystery. Penelope herself has hidden depths and not everything about her is as it seems. I thought she was a well written character in the way that the author gradually reveals her back story.


What let this down for me somewhat was that for a period mystery, the author focuses largely on the dialogue and doesn't spend a great deal of time on the descriptions of place and period (although I did enjoy her descriptions of the clothes at the party). Although I understand that it needed pace as well, I am a greedy reader who loves period atmosphere and I wanted some lavish descriptions of a decadent prohibition party. However, this may not bother other readers. The author had obviously done her research, particularly about Singapore and opera. I think that a prequel about her time in Singapore would be an interesting read as well as her planned sequel.

I received an advanced review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.