He looked up and saw a beautiful flapper leaning up against one side of the doorway with her hand seductively on her hip. She wore a short red dress with a shimmering beaded fringe that barely reach the knees of two very shapely legs. The vision had a wide jeweled band around her head and tucked unto that band was a long fluffy white ostrich plume.

“Allison?”

“Ain’t we got fun?” she replied softly.

Max jerked up in bed. “Allison, what the…?”

“Couldn’t resist, Max. I saw this little number in the dress shop and just had to have it. Isn’t it the eel’s eyebrows? It gives me a certain something, don’t you think?”

“It certainly gets my attention,” he replied, looking her up and down.

“Do you think it’s too hot?”

“Hot isn’t the word for it. That outfit could cause a riot in a monastery. I suppose this is part of your research. Do you plan to go under cover?”

She smiled and closed the door behind her. “Maybe if you play your cards right.”

This is the first installment in the Max Hurlock Roaring 20s Mysteries by John Reisinger. This is a series of historical mysteries based on never solved, true Twenties murders. I’ve read a few mysteries set in the Twenties and I have to say, this is one of the best researched. It gives a strong, clear sense of the Era without falling into the usual trappings. The flapper is one of them.

While Max Hurlock is a detective, his wife Allison is a journalist and in this particular story, she’s out for an article about the new breed of woman, the flapper. This gives the author the possibility to present the flapper in a variety of ways, not just the usual new free woman who breaks with the past trope. I like how he makes fun of the stereotype in this passage.

The mystery is also very well thought out, the author found a very interesting, plausible way to solve the murder. I enjoyed the appendix where he explains the true murder and how he used it in his story.

You can check out the other mysteries in the series here.

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