When I really need to recharge, I go to the sea, which is why I instantly gravitated to this book. As a busy amateur detective, Lady Swift seeks some downtime, too, but it doesn’t last. Not only does a body turn up almost as soon as she lets out a big exhale at the resort where she’s staying, but her husband whom she thought was dead six years ago, is the victim. Of all the people that had to “die” while she was on vacation, it had to be him, and that’s just where this storyteller’s mastery begins. Add humor, Englishness, and the interwar years—things I often gravitate toward in my beach reads—and I had a great whodunnit on my hands.

This book was originally published in 1929 anonymously, because it was a scandal. The fact that a writer would write about a woman who has multiple affairs and is clearly promiscuous was unheard of, so the writer was protected with an anonymous publication.

I could not stop reading this incredible and seminal book for the main reason that the language is so fresh. It was unlike any other vintage or antique novel that I’ve read, and I’ve read a few, as I collect antique books. 

The main protagonist in the book is a woman, a woman writer who has recently been divorced by her husband, also a writer. The issues she writes about, as a woman, are utterly timeless. The scene where she admits she’s been unfaithful to her husband (they are both young and in their 20s) and he acts as if he doesn’t care, saying: “And I thought… show more.

Another 1925 gem, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, was written, Anita Loos said, because she couldn’t get H.L. Mencken’s attention on a cross-country train trip because he was besotted by a blonde starlet-to-be.

One of the savviest, most pointed, and cosmopolitan takes on sex and gender from the period or from any period, really. It is, like the movie adaptation with Marilyn Monroe, pure fun and games at one level and trenchant commentary at another, but the book is that much smarter and more trenchant and therefore, much funnier.

Loos was one of the most successful screenwriters of her day, and she brings those skills to bear, but she has superb dexterity as a prose stylist and an almost uncanny knack for comic timing.

This book stands out from other historical mysteries near the sea because it is about a mystery on the high seas. On a steamship, to be exact, on its way to New York harbor. My mom was once a young Italian woman on a steamship sailing to Halifax, and while she was nothing like Fen Churche, the heroine in this story, I’ve always imagined my mom having lots of wild adventures on that Atlantic crossing. The way the author has woven this twisty, tricky tale, I could almost believe mom had an alter ego.

This fictionalized story is about one of Hollywood’s biggest silent film stars (Colleen Moore), on whom the three movies entitled A Star is Born are based.

Yes, it’s rags to riches for Doreen O’Dare, a determined teenager who follows her dream and makes it to the top, but who also sees the writing on the wall with the transition to talkies. She’s been sharp about her money, and changes course to follow another dream--making it to the top again, this time her way. 

In the process, Rooney reveals fascinating details about the making of silent films-- how actors and directors grew up with the industry, learning as they went, not always knowing what they were doing, little fish often surpassing big fish. And of her sad love story with a publicity genius who makes her a star but can’t keep up with her.

The parallel narrative is how her love… show more.

Dean Jobb incredibly well-researched book about 1920s' jewel thief Arthur Barry was a fascinating read. I'd never heard of Barry, but the book reads like an exciting novel as we follow his daring path to thievery—from remarkable successes to an eventual capture. I always love learning about weird and wonderful characters from the past, and Barry is absolutely one of them.