Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: A Death at His Majesty’s 
SERIES: The Simon Sampson Mysteries
AUTHOR: David C. Dawson
PUBLISHER: Park Creek Publishing
LENGTH: 280 pages
RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2024
BLURB:
The stage is set for murder
It’s the summer of 1929 and there’s a serial killer on the streets of London.
Bodies of young women are dumped at the stage doors of London’s theatres.
Noël Coward’s assistant Florence Miles, known to her close friends as Bill, is dragged into the investigation when the body of her former secret lover is found outside His Majesty’s Theatre.
Bill forms an unlikely alliance with the Chronicle newspaper’s senior crime reporter Simon Sampson. Together they discover that the killer has friends in high places…
This is the prequel to the LAMBDA finalist A Death in Berlin. It explores the secret world of the 1920s, a time when your sexuality could make you a lawbreaker. When gay men and women were constantly on their guard, careful about how they presented themselves in a hostile society.
A Death At His Majesty’s is the first of a series that brings together Bill and Simon and follows them as they embark on a series of sleuthing adventures.
REVIEW:
Our protagonists in this story are Florence Miles, aka Bill, who is the assistant to Noel Coward, the playwright and Simon Sampson, the senior crime reporter for the Chronicle, a well-respected London newspaper. They meet most auspiciously after Bill has had to identify the body of a former lover, Maureen Lyon, prop manager of the current Coward show and first victim of the so-called Theatre Killer. Bill is quite upset naturally and Simon offers his assistance. He ends up taking her to a “mens club” and they are on their way to becoming friends when Simon’s aunt let’s the cat out of the bag. Bill doesn’t mix with the press. Has no trust for the press. But Simon might not be so bad.
As Bill and Simon’s friendship develops, the share concerns that the police are not taking the murder investigation seriously because the consider the victim to be “unnormal” and clearly this isn’t a priority for them. Bill reaches out to Maureen’s room mate and the police officers who had come to interview her were extremely unfriendly and treated her with disdain. Simon goes to the police for the scheduled press briefing and finds it cancelled. There is not warning to other potential victims, so Bill and Simon are not convinced that anyone is even really looking for the killer.
As Bill and Simon are determined to pursue this investigation and try to force the police to do their job. Then another woman is attacked while Bill and Simon meet at one of the underground lesbian clubs of Soho. They follow up by examining the scene and find a potential clue. Again the police seem uninterested and the victim isn’t willing to come forward as she doesn’t want to be on the radar of the local police. Just bringing news of another attack to the police has put the community in the crosshairs of the law 🙁
When Bill is subsequently attacked, it’s clear that someone is targeting the lesbian community and there is definitely not a lot of follow through from the police except n a performative way. Luckily the killer is unsuccessful, but Bill is more determined than ever to find the culprit and protect the other women who are at risk. Simon is concerned about Bill and he’s determined to work with her to investigate these murders, starting back with Maureen. Traveling out of London for Maureen’s funeral opens a whole new avenue of investigation – something Simon seems to have a knack for.
Unfortunately the murderer has been lying in wait and hatching a new plan to rid the world of the “unnormals” as they put it. Bill is in jeopardy and Simon has been helpful in his own secret way. Fortunately Simon also has friends in high places and the cavalry saves the day 😀
I would definitely not categorize this as a romance, but more of a murder mystery with some romantic elements. Full disclosure, I have not read the other books in this series, but since this book is really a “prequel” to those books, I wanted to read it and then follow with the other books. I am a sucker for historical set in the 20s/30s, so this was a great fit for me. The London setting was interesting. The setting up of the BBC News “wireless”, the theatre world, the social swing toward conservatism and control juxtaposed against the modern advances of society, technology and industry and the more liberal society in Berlin and New York were well described. I’m so anxious to read the rest of the books as the action moves to Berlin in the 30s and things are about to change. Drastically. The end of this book coincides with the stock market crash and the beginning of the global depression.
Bottom line, I really really enjoyed this story! What a great noir period mystery this turned out to be. I felt like I was right there in London before the world economy crashed and everything changed so dramatically. I cannot wait to read the other books in this series. Recommended for fans of historicals and mysteries especially.
RATING: 
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