I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting mystery and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me guessing until the end. I highly recommend.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. A good mystery Novel. Great weekend read.

I really really wanted to like this book. But it was just really slow. It took a while for it to pick up before the actual "deadly" part helped to pick up the speed of the story. The Dizzy Heights are fun but the Alphabet Gang were just a confusing bunch (I guess they were meant to be confusing but it was still too much for me to comprehend TBH) that I couldn't get my mind around. Once the actual murder happened, I was a bit more intrigued but it still took a lot for me to keep with it. If I'm being honest, once the mystery was solved I pretty much stopped reading. I just didn't feel the need for the further explanation of how the perpetrators went about the crime.

This one was not for me, it was predictable and slow. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this one but I'm sure it has its merits and other people will truly enjoy it.

Sadly this book wasn’t really my cup of tea. It was a mystery and while it was well written it just wasn’t one I could really get into. I wish I could’ve, but sadly I never did. I appreciate the opportunity to try a new author to me, even though I wasn’t a huge fan.

this was a great start to the Dizzy Heights Mystery series, the plot was what I was looking for and I enjoyed reading this book.

This was a fun, twisting mystery that will keep you guessing. The writing was a little too dense at times so not the lightest read but worth sticking with it.

Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and Netgalley for a copy of the arc in return for my honest review.

I really tried to get into this story but I couldn't. The characters all seem fun and exciting but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Thank you Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for the advanced read.

This is a quite light mystery with a charming background of jazz-related environment in 1925' London. Unfortunately, while I have enjoyed all the charming and witty banter, I found this novel being more chatty than sleuthy. I got bored quite quickly because I could not get interested in the characters's personal lives.

Read this for a historical romp and maybe a little jazz education, also for a very light mystery.

The entertaining start of a new historical mystery series.
I had a lot of fun, found it well written and the solid mystery kept me guessing.
The characters are likeable and historical background vivid.
Can't wait to read the next instalment.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was a rare miss for me from this author, whose work I adore. I love the Lady Hardcastle mysteries. They are AWESOME, and totally rereadable. This book is a spin-off involving some of the folks we've met in the Hardcastle series. I like the musicians, the setting, the music, the mystery... but somehow the sum of the parts didn't jive. The rat-a-tat banter between Skins and Barty and the band members felt a little silly and very contrived. I think the author is super witty and has a fabulous way with words, but somehow I didn't buy the characters spouting this sort of dialogue. I dunno...

I enjoyed meeting all our old friends from the other series (albeit many, many years later) - it was a little sad that no one's life seemed dramatically different besides Skins. Emily, Flo, the superintendent... all seemed pretty static. I might have hoped for a little more (I would have also loved seeing a little more of them!). I enjoyed getting to spend more time with Ellie, Skins' wife, and thank God for her mystery solving skills (and physical sparring ability, apparently), because the men would have been lost without her! The mystery itself was ok, pretty guessable in parts, and the story dragged a little. Regardless, I'll be first in line to read the next book this author publishes. I'm hoping it'll be another Hardcastle one!! :)

Many thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC via netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to Net Galley for this ARC. I love the Lady Hardcastle mysteries and I was slightly worried this series would not live up to their greatness but I was so wrong. A brilliant mystery with great characters and I can't wait for the next book in this series!

I've been quite enjoying the Lady Hardcastle mysteries and didn't quite realize that this is a new series with characters that we have seen before. Lady Hardcastle and Flo do make a brief appearance in this book both "in person" and through letters that Flo is exchanging with Skins' wife, Ellie.
Skins and Barty are part of a jazz ensemble who have been asked to been play for a specific group at the Aristippus club. It seems that this group is supposed to go up against another group in a dance off. But these boys will need a lot of help.
It is a routine job until an old friend, Superintendent Sunderland, asks them for a bit of help. Rumors have it that an army deserter who stole a fortune in diamonds is somehow related to the club. Skins and Barty agree to help and are eventually aided by the whole band as well as Ellie.
The mystery was very much secondary to the character development and I did not hate it. Bartholomew "Barty" Dunn is a footloose and fancy-free bachelor though he is starting to re-think his ways. He is shown to have a soft spot for his landlady who lost all three of her sons in the war.
Skins and Ellie fell in love in an early Lady Hardcastle book and now have two children. Ellie is supposed to have an inheritance but her family didn't like Skins being a musician and are holding the money until they've been married for a set amount of time. It's all of the little touches that really start to make us care about reading more of the stories.

Four stars
This book came out March 1, 2021
ARC kindly provided by Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds is the first book of A Dizzy Heights Mystery series by T. E. Kinsey. Set in London 1925, we follow the Dizzy Heights band unravel the mystery of the missing diamonds and catch a murderer.

It's a light and entertaining read. It's filled with delightful and dynamic characters. The banters between the band members are enjoyable especially Skins and Barty's. I love the premise, historical setting, and the jazz element. The plot is well-written and the mystery is solved nicely.

My only issue: there's little investigating that happened. It's mostly dialogues and dance practices that it bogs down the plot.

Thank you Netgalley, T. E. Kinsey, and Amazon Publishing UK for the opportunity to read The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds.

This was just somehow not what I expected. Despite the delightful performers of the Dizzy Heights, the banter amongst them and with the rest of the ensemble of characters, I just struggled with the storyline. It just didnt make sense to me, and it took a long time to be resolved.

I really do enjoy this period, the author's style and his exploration of the rhyming Cockney slang etc. Perhaps next time?

I am addicted to the Lady Hardcastle series. Loved each one to date and hoped for more than her very small cameo appearance in this story.

With thanks to Amazon Publishing UK, #Netgalley and the author for my advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

Working for Superintendent Sunderland was a different way of going about their music, as the Dizzy Heights played many gigs in London in 1925, but with Skins and Barty, good friends of Lady Hardcastle and Flo, and best friends themselves, everything was lighthearted and fun and loved by many. The dance contest that the band had promised to play for – helping them practice every week - saw the group bumble their way through their first lessons.

But when a murder occurred in the Aristippus Club in Mayfair where Dizzy Heights were playing, things became personal, and they were determined to find the killer. They also vowed to sort out Sunderland’s problem along the way. Would the Alphabet boys win the dance contest? And would they discover the killer and thief before the entertainment was over?

The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds is the 1st in A Dizzy Heights Mystery series by T.E. Kinsey and it was fun and entertaining. I laughed out loud many times, especially at Skins and Barty’s antics and comments. There wasn’t much interaction with Lady Hardcastle and Flo but they were behind the scenes. All in all, a great start to a new series by the author of The Lady Hardcastle Mysteries which I love! Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy T. E. Kensey's Lady Hardcastle series when I pick it up, so I was excited about the spin-off of it. Here we follow Skins Maloney and Barty Dunn, with the edition of Skins' wife Ellie, superintendent Sunderland and the band that the boys are in, The Dizzy Heights.
The year is 1925. Jazz music is getting very popular in Britain, so The Dizzy Heights are quite busy with gigs. Then an old acquaintance, Sunderland, reaches out to Skins and Dunn to ask for their help. As one of the gigs, The Dizzy Heights are playing for a group of club members called The Alphabet Gang, who will participate in a dancing contest in a few weeks. The police have reasons to suspect that one of the group's members is an imposter and is in fact a diamond thief. Skins and Dunn are asked to look closer at each member to try and figure out who it might be. Things get more complicated when someone from The Dizzy Heights is murdered.
I enjoyed this one. It was nice to see the characters that I already breifly know take center stage. This book is set quite a few years in the future, so Emily Hardcastle is almost 60 years old! She and Flo Armstrong make a brief appearance and they are still kicking it.
My biggest complaint is that for a mystery novel there was very little investigating going on. The book is over 300 pages but the solving of the crime only happened in the last 20%. The rest of it was just lots of dialogues and dance practices. I wasn't too mad about that because I liked The Alphabet Gang, they were hilarious, and I liked the relationship between our main characters, Ellie was definitely my favorite. But I still wish there was more clues and theories and so on.
But overall, it wasn't a bad first book in a new series. You definitely don't have to have read the Lady Hardcastle books to understand this one, it stands well on its own.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first novel I have read by T.E. Kinsey and I really enjoyed it! I have never read the Lady Hardcastle series but now I want to check them out as well. This book is set in London during the 1920's and follows Skins Maloney and Barty Dunn who are in a jazz band called The Dizzy Heights. It's a really fun cozy read with a little something for everyone - stolen diamonds, jazz, dance contests and a case of murder thrown in!

The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds is the first in new spin off series of the Lady Hardcastle mysteries. Set in the interwar years and the beginning of the jazz age Skins Maloney and Barty Dun, the founding members of the Dizzy Heights jazz band, are recruited by the overstretched and underfunded Superintendent Sunderland to sniff out a deserter who also might have stolen some uncut diamonds. They are to observe some bright young things and report back nothing more but when one of their own is murdered steps must be taken.
This was a lot of fun, it’s eighty percent dialogue which I didn’t mind at all especially the phobia bit and there are some genuinely touching moments specifically Duns relationship with his landlady. Puddle is obviously the best character so more of her please.

A thorough good time with characters from the Lady Hardcastle series taking center stage, although we still get a guest star appearance from Flo and Lady Hardcastle - think of this as a crossover episode, in the NCIS mode, that serves as a series premiere. The mystery clips along with thoroughly likable leads and a nice supporting cast in the Dizzy Heights band, with nods to the trauma of WWI, and the sense of humor that one can expect from a Kinsey mystery. The only stumbling block, to me, was a bit of action dump in the latter quarter of the novel that read a bit stiff; I think this can be explained as a one-off issue of a writer grappling with a new point of view and we can smoothly move on from there. A total recommend.