This Dandy Gilver mystery is charming, as always. Dandy and Alec are winning and Grant, Dandy's lady's maid, plays a large and welcome role. We are immersed in the magazine publishing business, the grubby side of second rate theaters (in which Grant lends her expertise), and itinerant puppet show men. Two small quibbles: the mystery was a bit scattershot and I'm not convinced that everything hangs together in a cohesive way. and Bunty remains offscreen for 95% of the book. Ms. McPherson does, however, set up some pressing questions in what we can hope is the next series of Gilver stories. Will Alec marry Poppy? Will Dandy's sons serve in, and survive WWII? Will Hugh get his finances together? And, possibly most important, what role will Dandy and Alec play in Britain's upcoming war with Germany and the Axis powers? A strong recommend.

I have read all the books in the author’s Last Ditch Motel series, set in present-day California, but this was the first I had read in her long-running Dandy Gilver series, which takes place in Scotland in the 1930’s. There’s a more genteel ambience here, with Dandy setting out with her domestic staff to a puppet show to investigate the possibility that it involved stolen intellectual property. When she discovers a grisly murder behind the scenes of the Punch and Judy stand, Dandy enlists her investigative partner, Alex Osbourne, to follow leads that the police don’t seem inclined to pursue.

This is the fifteenth Dandy Gilver novel, but it worked well as a standalone, and I felt instantly at home with the author’s trademark humor and her characters’ clever dialogue. The story is set in an earlier era, to be sure, but that doesn’t mean the female protagonist is anyone’s wallflower. She stands her ground, doesn’t allow herself to be dismissed by the police, and gets things done, all while keeping up amusing repartee with the other characters. This is a cozy with an amateur sleuth set in the golden age of mysteries, but the strong protagonist makes it feel modern. I’ll happily read more books in this series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Mobius books for a digital advance review copy.

A nice mystery and great historical background….

I had read several early titles in Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver series back in “real paperback book” days, and remember them fondly. However during my transition to reading e-books almost exclusively, I had somehow kind of lost track of this series. So I was happy to be offered a review copy of the newest book in the series, The Mirror Dance. And I liked it a lot.

McPherson does a really nice job of mingling an intriguing mystery (who killed the Punch and Judy man in the park, and how, and why) with some fascinating period descriptions about the publishing industry and theatre performers in the days between the wars. Miss Sandy Bissett is an unusual client for Dandy and her investigative partner, Alec Osborne. She runs Doig’s, a small publisher with a line of girls’ comics about a character named Rosie Cheeke. Someone has reported that the Punch and Judy man in the local park is violating Doig’s copyright by using characters from the comic in his show, and since Doig’s can’t afford a lawyer, Miss Bissett hopes to get Dandy to talk to him instead, so he’ll desist. This isn’t the kind of thing Dandy usually does, but she agrees to give it a try. Things get complicated though when the Punch and Judy man is murdered before Dandy can speak with him - in the middle of his show, apparently without anyone approaching his cart. Then strange things start happening at Doig’s, and at a larger publisher, DCT, and Dandy, Alec, Grant and the rest of the crew have to figure out what is really going on.

McPherson has a really nice touch with the characters and the plot, and doesn’t bore with the background. I ended up reading this in only a couple of sittings and found myself hoping for more. Now I’m going to go back and read the books I had skipped. Please keep in mind that I try to fight star-flation a bit, and so I don’t give a lot of 5-star reviews. So 4-stars is a really solid recommendation to read The Mirror Dance. And my thanks go to Mobius Books and NetGalley for the review copy.

4.5 stars rounded up! This book is phenomenal! It is intriguing, gripping, full of twists and turns, engaging, witty, and so much more! Whenever I picked up "The Mirror Dance", I was whisked back in time to the late 1930s in Scotland, put on my sleuthing hat, and went on quite the detective investigation with this story.

This is the 15th book in Catriona Mcpherson's "Dandy Gilver" mystery series, but the first I have read. I think the book can work as as stand-alone novel. However, there were a few moments where I feel like past books in the series were referenced that I didn't quite understand, and there were times when I wasn't entirely sure who some characters were. However, the author does a great job of quickly filling the reader in, and, after a quick google search of the main characters in the series, my questions were completely answered! Even with all of this said, none of it took away from how gripped I was by the book. Ms. McPherson's writing style is incredibly visceral, and every moment throughout her story jumps right off of the page. She brilliantly weaves a mystery (or mysteries!) that keep the reader on the edge of their seat from the first page to the last. I felt that each piece of the puzzle fell into place in exactly the moment it needed to be revealed, and I so look forward to going back and reading the previous books in the series too!

Dandy, a private investigator, is asked to attend a puppet show and ask that copyrighted characters stop being used. She is soon shocked to see that the man whom she is supposed to speak to has been murdered during the show, and no one saw the killer. As she and her fellow private detective Alec begin to investigate further, more and more clues begin to spring up and further complicate the case. As they are led to publishers, a college, theatres, and much more, nothing seems to make sense, and clue upon clue seems to point to a coincidence, or more than one possibility as to whodunit. Are the various mysteries connected in any way? And if so, how? Is there more going on than meets the eye? You will just have to read to find out!

If you enjoy historical mysteries, I highly recommend this book! It kept me turning the pages chapter after chapter to see what would happen next, and I could not put it down! There were quite a few times I thought I had the mystery figured out...and I most certainly did not! My mouth dropped quite a few times...and I was SHOCKED!

Thank you so much to Mobius Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book, and to Mobius Books for sending me a beautiful finished copy! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Long ago I read the first books in this series but then somehow lost track of the next entries. When I saw The Mirror Dance available for request I recalled having enjoyed those early titles. This was an entertaining read and now I want to go back and catch up.
Set in Dundee and involving the publishing business and a Punch and Judy copyright dispute it was an entertaining and very well written mystery. Going back to an earlier more carefree time, Dandy is a middle-aged woman, married with grown children and twin grandchildren. She also undertakes investigations with her partner, Alec Osborne. Deciding to take the case she makes an outing of it with her household staff and it's the August Bank Holiday and they had been promised a half day off. Little did they foresee that a murder would occur. The Punch and Judy puppeteer - a nasty piece of work by all accounts - has his throat slit while the audience sits out front. Dandy is the one who discovers the body and the simple cease and desist case heats up.
The mystery kept me engaged to the last page with enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep me guessing wrong many times. Dandy, her husband Hugh, her maid Grant, the butler Pallister and Alec plus assorted other characters all came across as well developed people. After enjoying this entry so much I'm looking forward to reading the books I missed.
My thanks to the publisher, Mobius Books and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

This was so different from my normal reads and I absolutely loved it

So happy to find this period cozy series set in Dundee! Even though I'd not read any of the preceding books this made for a delightful afternoon read. Dandy and her friend Alex agree to take a look at a puppet show which Sandy Bissett, a publisher, thinks using images owned by the magazine. It's August 1937 and bank holiday weekend so there are lots of people in the park to see the Punch and Judy show- and therefore many suspects when the puppeteer is found with his throat slit! Dandy, Alex, her household staff, and others find themselves on a trip through the darker side of publishing and well, puppetry. There are lots of red herrings and it's a little different from the modern cozy. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. A fun read and now I'm going to look for more with Dandy.

I read the first five books in this series and then just lost track of them. It was interesting to pick up this 15th book in the series and find that I still remembered all the principal characters. This one takes place in 1937, the Bank Holiday in August. I am glad to see that Catriona McPherson has kept the series feeling fresh and relevant to the characters. Scotland is well represented without having pages and pages of landscape or city streets described for the reader. Dandy Gilver is feeling a bit bored so she agrees to take on something very different from her usual detecting antics when she receives a phone call from a woman she has never met. Dandy loads the motorcar with her cook, the housemaid and her personal maid, Grant, and goes in search of a specific Punch and Judy show. From that humble beginning the past comes roaring back, changing the lives of a great many people.

This was a good reading experience, just as those first books in the series were. The crime is interestingly laid out for readers and piqued my interest quickly. Plot lines and explanations did seem to get tangled up pretty thoroughly and made me have to wait for the solution when the author chose to reveal it. There is talk of the possibility of war in Europe in the near future so the author has a wide range of problems and locations to pick from when coming up with the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mobius Books for an e-galley of this novel.

"Something sinister is afoot in the streets of Dundee, when a puppeteer is found murdered behind his striped Punch and Judy stand, as children sit cross-legged drinking ginger beer. At once, Dandy Gilver's seemingly-innocuous investigation into plagiarism takes a darker turn. The gruesome death seems to be inextricably bound to the gloomy offices of Doig's Publishers, its secrets hidden in the real stories behind their girls' magazines The Rosie Cheek and The Freckle.

On meeting a mysterious professor from St Andrews, Dandy and her faithful colleague Alex Osbourne are flung into the worlds of academia, the theatre and publishing. Nothing is quite as it seems, and behind the cheerful facades of puppets and comic books, is a troubled history has begun to repeat itself."

Because sometimes you just need Dandy Gilver in your life.

Something sinister is afoot in the streets of Dundee, when a puppeteer is found murdered behind his striped Punch and Judy stand, as children sit cross-legged drinking ginger beer. At once, Dandy Gilver's seemingly-innocuous investigation into plagiarism takes a darker turn. The gruesome death seems to be inextricably bound to the gloomy offices of Doig's Publishers, its secrets hidden in the real stories behind their girls' magazines The Rosie Cheek and The Freckle. This was one of the better stories I have read lately. Tightly plotted, historically interesting and really compelling characters. I read this in one sitting because it was just too hard to put down and the ending was totally satisfying and surprising.....worth the sleepiness the next day. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.