Blog Tour: Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder

A thing I learned in (late) 2020 is that I'm more of a mystery fan than thriller so it was with that in mind that I thought I'd like to read Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T.A. Willberg. I thought right and quite enjoyed Willberg's debut novel.

Here's the synopsis:

The letter was short. A name, a time, a place.

Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder plunges readers into the heart of London, to the secret tunnels that exist far beneath the city streets. There, a mysterious group of detectives recruited for Miss Brickett’s Investigations & Inquiries use their cunning and gadgets to solve crimes that have stumped Scotland Yard.

Late one night in April 1958, a filing assistant at Miss Brickett’s receives a letter of warning, detailing a name, a time, and a place. She goes to investigate but finds the room empty. At the stroke of midnight, she is murdered by a killer she can’t see―her death the only sign she wasn’t alone. It becomes chillingly clear that the person responsible must also work for Miss Brickett’s, making everyone a suspect.

Marion Lane, a first-year Inquirer-in-training, finds herself drawn ever deeper into the investigation. When her friend and colleague is framed for the crime, to clear his name she must sort through the hidden alliances at Miss Brickett’s and secrets dating back to WWII. Masterful, clever and deliciously suspenseful, Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder is a fresh take on the Agatha Christie-style locked-room murder mystery, with an exciting new heroine detective.

The world Willberg created is quite like our own but unlike it all at once. Miss Brickett's is not a detective agency that you would ever find anywhere else (at least, that's what civilians like us would have been told). The agents (known as Inquirers) at Miss Brickett's have gadgets that wouldn't seem out of place in a fantasy novel except they're not at all magical. Just very clever devices that use mechanics and science to work. It was pretty neat but also pulled me out of the story every once and awhile as everything else was so normal that my mind didn't really want to comprehend what I was reading. A negative? No, not really. It was just...odd.

I often forgot that it was set in 1958 and I'm not sure it being set in the past really did all that much. Of course, having the story take place not long after WWII did explain a number of things and why some people would have chosen to work for an agency that, for the majority of people, doesn't exist. So much of the novel takes place in the underground world of the agency that you don't really get to see London during that timeframe.

While I definitely liked Marion immediately, I feel like the reader doesn't quite get to know her enough through the course of the story. She, understandably, holds people at arm's length and that meant the reader isn't fully let into her life either. And her friendship with Bill was supposed to be so obviously solid but I hardly know a thing about him either. That said, I looked past it because I did like her and I did care about her, almost as soon as I met her. She's intriguing, I think, and I liked that she was the heroine of the story (and not, say, Bill). 

The murder referenced in the title was, as murders go, not a very nice one. It throws the agency into absolute chaos but no one is being officially told anything so rumours abound and productivity is low. The pace of the mystery is the star of this novel as I was highly invested and kept turning the pages to find out what the next clue would be. I was a teeny bit disappointed that the reveal was one of those instances where the villain tells their tale instead of getting to work of disposing of everyone and then ends up caught, but overall I was surprised and delighted (if one can be delighted with a murder mystery) at how Willberg constructed and revealed the whodunnit.

I have a feeling Willberg has set this up to be a series. The mystery was wrapped up but things still felt a wee bit unfinished so I hope that means we'll see more of Marion in the future. (Note: I've just read the author bio, below, and yes - it looks like the plan is for this to be a series!)

I'm really happy to have read Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder as T.A. Willberg's debut novel was not like any mystery I've read before. I'm excited to read what comes next and also to read more mysteries in 2021.

Buy the novel:
Harlequin * Indiebound * Bookshop * Amazon * Barnes & Noble  * Indigo
Books-A-Million * Target * Walmart * Google * iBooks * Libro.Fm * Kobo

Connect with the Author
Website * Twitter * Facebook * Instagram

About the Author
T.A. Willberg was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and holds a chiropractic masters degree from Durban University of Technology. MARION LANE AND THE MIDNIGHT MURDER is her debut novel and launch of her detective series. She currently lives in Malta with her partner.

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Park Row Books/HarperCollins, via NetGalley for exchange for review consideration for the purpose of a blog tour. All opinions are honest and my own.*