Murder At The Met (Penelope Harris Mystery #2), by E. W. Cooper, is a historical murder mystery set in 1920s Manhattan.  If you haven’t read the first Penelope Harris book, The Jade Tiger, it’s still easy to pick up Murder at the Met and understand the plot. Penelope Harris has recently returned to New York from Shanghai, hoping to repair her reputation and restart a musical career. She’s quietly networking and looking for voice students at an amateur recital, which turns into a dramatic mix with an incredibly pushy stage mother, talentless singer from a powerful family, and loads of casting dramas. I loved meeting all these characters, and seeing all their performance intrigue and personality clashes, and it sets up the rest of the book so well.

Penelope’s bumped into an old flame, Thom Lund, and settled down to enjoy a night at the opera (and each other’s company, obviously) when there’s a mysterious death of another opera attendee. Without revealing spoilers, it could just be a tragic accident… but something’s not quite right, especially as more is discovered. This is just the beginning of family secrets and financial secrets.  Penelope feels loyalty to the daughters she met earlier that day, and finds herself pulled into an investigation instead of canoodling with Thom. Meanwhile, Thom’s been asked to look into a recent suicide, also while keeping his investigation quiet to avoid scandal and gossip for the family.

Penelope and Thom both find themselves pulled into a complicated investigation, where nothing’s really what it seems at first.  There are so many society secrets around affairs and money that at first it seems like Penelope and Thom could never solve their cases. I enjoyed discovering the secrets and the constant keeping up appearances, and I kept wanting Penelope and Thom to finally get some time alone.

Murder at the Met is a fast-paced mystery, with a roaring twenties backdrop. Yes, there’s  murder in the book, and the location and condition of the body is described, but none of the descriptions are gross. It’s not quite a cozy mystery though, Penelope’s in real danger and there’s a real body count, but fortunately for me, there never any gory descriptions. Mostly there are wild personalities to meet and society secrets to uncover in this historical mystery.

For more historical mysteries with lady sleuths, try the Mitford Murders series, Murder at the Mena House, or The Woman on the Orient Express.

Murder At The Met (Penelope Harris Mystery #2) is by E. W. Cooper and will be released by Ink Dog Press on April 8, 2021. Thanks to BookSirens for the ARC. Opinions are my own, as always.