Loved the characters in this one- a jazzy mystery set in a club called the Nightengale. When a body is discovered in the alley one night - it suddenly puts Vicen who dances at the underground club into danger. There is a police raid that brings her to the attention of the club owner who asks for a favor that she cannot deny accepting. Well written and fun - this story zipped by bubbling with the sound of jazz

Last Call at the Nightingale, a riveting story—well-written, beautifully crafted, and brilliantly imagined.

I’d heard a lot of good things about Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman, which made me eager to read it even though historical mysteries aren’t my usual forte. But now that I’ve read it, I’m happy I did. Schellman introduced us to an engaging lead in Vivian Kelly and I liked the surprising and intriguing support cast we meet and hope to see again from this novel advertised as the first in a series—Vivian’s sister Florence, her best friend Beatrice, her friend Danny, love interest Leo, and Honor Huxley, owner of the speakeasy called the Nightingale.

There’s a backstory and baggage in relation to the Kelly sister’s dead mother and absent father, but it informs rather than overwhelms the story unfolding here which gives the reader a nice balance of the crime-at-hand and the usual personal stuff impacting on the character’s lives—particularly that of Vivian Kelly.

We get a murder close to the very start, which is how the best crime fiction novels begin, and that gets coincidentally linked to Vivian when she and Beatrice discover a dead man in the alley behind the Nightingale. Beatrice works at the jazz club as a waitress and it’s where Vivian goes almost every night to enjoy a brief respite from her hand-to-mouth existence and the grind of her day job as an underpaid seamstress.

The story takes place in New York City in 1924, during Prohibition, a time when speakeasies flourished and bootleg alcohol flowed freely. Honor Huxley, who makes it her business to know where all the bodies are buried, eventually presses Vivian into trying to identify the killer of the man found dead in the alley, and somewhat reluctantly at first, Vivian plays the role of an amateur sleuth in the endeavor. That, of course, places her in all manner of personal danger, and the fallout even spills over and splashes onto her sister Flo before it’s all said and done.

Reading Last Call at the Nightingale often made me think of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, although this book focuses more on the circumstances of the poor, downtrodden, and marginalized minorities of the twenties than the uber wealthy. Still, there were comparisons I easily drew, and Schellman effectively presents to us the social stratification that existed between the haves and have-nots during The Roaring Twenties, a period of rapid economic growth and social change.

Schellman’s fanciful imprinting of the elements of 2020s wokeness culture on The Roaring Twenties seems a bit farfetched, but at the same time, the slight departure into historical revisionism adds depth and interest to this fictional tale. I suppose many find it empowering and take comfort in imagining facets of purely modern culture and contemporary social constructs they embrace to have a long history in society, even when they do not.

Overall, I found Last Call at the Nightingale a riveting story—well-written, beautifully crafted, and brilliantly imagined. Schellman is a talented writer who keeps the pages turning and I’m eager to read more of her work.

hanks to Netgalley for the ARC!
A Jazz age/ Roaring twenties murder mystery with well drawn personalities, mostly all just trying to get through the night...Atmospheric descriptions of the speakeasy, the tenements, the grand homes add to the story. An enjoyable read.

The cover and title caught my eye and intrigued me right from the start. Once I read the synopsis I couldn't wait to read this book. Wow, I was not disappointed at all! I loved every second and could not put it down. This is the perfect murder mystery! I loved that it took place in the 20's and a could envision myself in the Nightingale dancing away. I am looking forward to reading more from this author. I highly recommend it!

Vivian Kelly is a poor seamstress just trying to have some fun dancing at nights at an underground club. The Nightingale is a secretive, no questions asked, and what’s the code type of place. After all, this book does take place during the prohibition. As the music ebbs and the liquor flows, Vivian realizes there’s a raid happening. After getting caught, she owns the matron money….but how is she going to pay off that debt? This “who dunnit” mystery had such a captivating setting, a cool cast of characters, and some highly seedy characters. How many people will wind up dead by the last page? Cheers!

I was really looking forward to this one. I enjoy cozy mysteries and the Jazz Age angle seemed like it would be a fun and novel setting but somehow I just never connected with the characters the way I'd hoped i would.

There were a few bright spots at the Nightingale - primarily the owner Hux, and head bartender Danny Chin - and I wanted a lot more of their characters than the story provided. While I found protagonist Vivian's relationships with her sister and Bea interesting for a time, they weren't enough to hold the story together as none of the three of them really jumped off the page the way Hux and Danny did for me. I found the murder mystery elements a bit underwhelming and the whole thing moved slower than I wanted it to...

This one wasn't a good fit for me - it felt more like traditional historical fiction than a mystery, with much more emphasis on stage settimg than on plotting and revelations. Perhaps if I'd been reading it for the former rather than the latter I would have had a better time with it, but it left my desire for a cozy mystery a bit more unfulfilled than I wanted - or expected - based on its billing...

This mystery is filled with all the familiar Jazz Age signifiers- champagne, speakeasies, fashion, etc. - but it also shows all the grit beneath the glimmer. Vivian Kelly escapes to the Nightingale for evenings filled with dancing and a bit of escapist fun from her day to day life in which she and her sister are barely scraping by as seamstresses. A dead body, though, launches Vivian into a whole new world of danger and secrets. With lots of interesting and well researched representation, this series starter is excellent.

Thanks to NetGalley, and Minotaur books for access to an eARC for an honest review.

This was such a solid book for me. It personally took me a few days to really dive in due to this being my first eBook I've read for pleasure, however once I started I quickly devoured the rest of the story.

Set in 1920s New York City, is a perspective I have yet to read before, a queer murder mystery. Vivian Kelly just wants to enjoy her time dancing at The Nightingale, a speakeasy during Prohibition. But her fun nights at the jazz club are suddenly upturned when she and her friend find a dead man in the alley outside the club. Vivian is tasked with finding information on a handsome newcomer, Leo Green, who suddenly begins showing up the night after the murder, by the female club owner, Honor Huxley, that has taken a shine to Vivian in more ways than professional. Vivian struggles to balance her home life (with her prudish sister, Florence, who disapproves of Vivian’s nightlife), her work life (a view into a 1920’s young woman’s career options), her nightlife (The Nightingale was open to all, regardless of wealth, class, race or sexual orientation—and the reader is able to see Vivian sort through the feelings she develops for both Leo and Honor) and this new job of trying to gather the puzzle pieces of who was involved with the murder of Willard Wilson.

I found the scenes between the sisters to be the most compelling. While not completely opposite from each other, Florence is shocked and dismayed at Vivian’s lifestyle, the late nights at the illegal jazz club. In my opinion however, it was their love for each other that drives them both, and in the end that love is what drives Vivian to make her choices, not the tension between Viv and Leo or Viv and Honor. I wish that there was more time given to fully flush out the sisters’ relationship, or at least dive more deeply into Florence's background.

I think this would be a great book for high schoolers and up to read. There is some violence (Vivian is involved in a couple altercations) and some light gore (dead body, a man dying after being shot), and implications of child sexual abuse. There is some sexual tension, but no actual scenes depicting sex acts. I believe high school and up would be an appropriate audience.

I really enjoyed this book! I actually found it quite difficult to put down. I loved the characters and the storyline, and highly recommend it to lovers of all genres.

I love any book set in the roaring '20s, and this book has it all. Murder, mystery, romance, all set during the prohibition era.

I don't read much historical fiction, but I will dive right in to a book set in the roaring 20's. I was instantly transported to this time with the author's clear writing and her grasp of this time period. The mystery was easy to solve. I more enjoyed the characters' lives and how they related to one another.

Prohibition, amateur-sleuth, NYC, multicultural, murder, murder-investigation, mystery, thriller, threats, 1924, seamstress, suspense, bootlegging, LGBTQIA, class-consciousness, dancing, historical-novel, historical-places-events, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture*****

When is a dance club more than a dance club? When it is a Speakeasy.
Life was going okay for Vivian an Irish orphan living in a NYC tenement with her sister, working as a seamstress during the day and loving her minimal pay job at a dance club at night. Until she and a coworker stumble upon a dead man with expensive attire. Then she begins to learn how to be a sleuth.
Many interesting, engaging, and diverse characters populate this unusual whodunit. The plot moves along smoothly and swiftly with some really fascinating twists and red herrings. I loved it!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

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<p>Vivian Kelly is a seamstress by day, an Irish orphan in the New York City of the mid-1920s. By night she dances her cares away at the Nightingale, a speakeasy that serves a mixed clientele in race, class, and sexuality. Her sister wishes she'd stay on the right side of the law, but the Nightingale is Viv's haven from a world that doesn't much care what happens to women like her...until she and her best friend Bea find a dead body in the alley.</p>
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<p>The corpse looks only vaguely familiar, but the Nightingale's owner wants Viv to help find out what's going on--especially after the club gets raided. She's not exactly <em>happy</em> to help, but she wants the Nightingale--and her friends who work there--to be safe, and her work gives her an excuse to fit clothes for the primary bereaved. <em>And</em> the interesting new man hanging around the club might have something to do with it all, but is it on the side of angels? Viv is highly motivated to find out. The dead man's associates are providing a little...extra motivation of their own, and it is not always on the positive side, so Viv had better figure things out, fast.</p>
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<p>This was a fun, easy reading mystery with lots of dancing to jazz, lots of cocktails, lots of flirting and friendship and sisterhood. Schellman's notes after the book point out that she researched when the title Ms. was used (earlier than one might think!), whether there were Black and Irish girls living two blocks away from each other in NYC at the time (yes!), whether all the races and ethnicities she portrayed would be mixing at some types of speakeasy (absolutely!), and so on--I suspect that the fact that this is written as a fast-paced mystery rather than a footnoted treatise may be what trips up those readers who want to argue those points. (Certainly we can agree that the past was diverse, we just can't enjoy it that way?) This one isn't for them. It may well be for you, though.</p>
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Last Call at the Nightingale combines authentic-feeling prohibition era period detail with a heroine who’s easy to love, a unique cast of supporting characters, and a genuinely surprising mystery.

It’s 1924, we’re in New York City, and bisexual Irish immigrant Vivian Kelly sews at a dress shop for a living, sharing a tenement apartment with her younger sister, the old-fashioned Florence.  The two young women were orphaned as children, and aged out of the system and into their tenement apartment together.  But at The Nightingale - an underground dance club - Vivian can escape from her daily drudgery and experience glamour and romance in the dark, with free drinks and free dances galore. Vivian crosses boundaries of class as she lets loose and has fun.

Then one night at the club, Vivian and her waitress friend Bea stumble upon a man’s body in the alleyway at the back.  Though they vow to tell no one what they’ve seen, she and Bea find themselves swept up into the investigation surrounding the man’s murder.

Last Call at the Nightingale is a strongly-written mystery that’s a very engrossing read and a very surprising and breathlessly-told tale.  It’s perfectly plotted,  moves with all speed toward the conclusion and is hard to put down.  But if you’re only here for a love story, be forewarned: there is a romance between Vivian and a fellow who becomes involved in the case, but it’s secondary and left somewhat in the air, so don’t expect anything more exciting than a happy-for-now conclusion.

Strong research and an easy-to-root-for heroine make this one especially interesting.  Vivian is determined to have fun no matter what, and her fun leads her to a different sort of adventure.

This is a great mystery, and the ending to it is truly unpredictable.  To reveal very much more about the book would ruin the experience of it.  So go pick up Last Call at the Nightingale and let yourself be swept away.

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Kick up your heels and pass the bubbles! In LAST CALL AT THE NIGHTINGALE, Katharine Schellman takes on the Jazz Age, giving us a twisty-turny murder mystery that explores a changing world. The Nightingale is a speakeasy that draws the high and the low, all looking to escape something in their workaday lives, and Schellman evokes the atmosphere in wonderful detail: low lights, velvet curtains, the wail of trumpets and trombones, the scent of booze and sweat. Much like in her Regency-era mysteries, the characters are compelling and diverse, and though the plot is driven by a whodunit, what kept me reading was wanting to see more of Vivian and the others caught in the Nightingale's orbit.

Set during prohibition in a .lower class speakeasy, Vivian uses dancing as a way to escape her impoverished life.. The discovery of a murdered man behind the speakeasy takes her on a dangerous hunt for clues to who the victim was and who murdered him.

Great world building and believable characters. A complicated plot that has you guessing many times who the good guys are.

Katharine Schellman's newest historical mystery series is a Jazz Age hit with a compelling cast of diverse characters. Vivian Kelly spends her days trying to scrape by in life with her sister, and her nights dancing away her troubles. Vivian becomes tangled up in the secrets of the intriguing employees and patrons of The Nightingale speakeasy, putting her at danger's door. Overall the characters were all well-developed, and for those who had more veiled motivations (ex. her sister), I hope to read more about them in the next book. With a steadily-paced plot and plenty of twists and turns in the mystery, this is a solid new historical mystery.

Wow! I'm blown away by this historical mystery! Set during Prohibition, this novel is so crisp and well written that you feel like you're actually there in Vivian's shoes as she navigates a particularly difficult time in history. The mystery is appropriately twisty and the characters well drawn. I especially appreciated that Schellman including people who are not usually seen in these books (Asians, Blacks, LGBTQ+) Moreover, the history in this novel is impeccable. (Every time I thought I'd caught a goof, I looked it up and I was wrong.) Highly recommended.

Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman features a speakeasy where the alcohol flows, the music blares, and couples pack the dance floor. It is at the Nightingale where we first meet Vivian, a young Irish woman, and her friend Bea. The two women are enjoying trips around the dance floor with several gents and sipping champagne and other alcoholic drinks provided by the bartender, Danny. What surprised me early on was that this was a very mixed crowd; Danny is Chinese. Bea, who works at the Nightingale ad lives just a block or so from Vivian and her sister Florence, is Black. The club’s patrons are of all races, genders, and gender identities. The club owner, Ms. Honor Huxley (yes, she goes by “Ms.”) is a lesbian and is not particularly shy about it. She knows everything that goes on in her establishment; if she doesn’t know, she has ways of finding out.

When Vivian and Bea stumble upon a dead man in the alley outside the Nightingale one night, “Hux” makes a deal with Vivian to learn more on the sly in order to keep the police from becoming involved. Vivian may seem naïve, and at times, she seems to have bitten off more than she can chew, but she’s also got plenty of moxie. Despite her sister Flo’s protestations, Viv steps out every night to go to the club and engages the patrons and others in her efforts to glean information about the dead man.

The plot seemed fairly straightforward, but there are some red herrings, which had me quite confused for a while. I wasn’t reading to solve the murder, however. I became absorbed in the lives of the characters, in how they interact and relate to one another. I loved that Bea and Viv are best friends; they seem colorblind and are devoted to one another. The sisters, who were raised by nuns in an orphanage, have a close relationship, although it is different from the two friends. Flo and Viv live together in a tiny tenement residence, work as seamstresses, and pool their money for groceries. But they don’t share confidences as readily as one might expect. Honor Huxley is another fascinating character. When her club is raided and many patrons are arrested, she is in the background providing bail. She and Vivian waltz around, both literally and figuratively, as Vivian seems undecided about which way she swings. Will we see more from the Nightingale, Viv, Bea, and Honor?

I found Last Call at the Nightingale to be a fun, engaging read. Pour yourself a glass of your favorite beverage, put on some jazz, and dive in!

Thanks to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and the author for this ARC copy in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

3 stars

Fan of the roaring 20s and speakeasies?? Throw in a murder mystery and this book was written for you! I could not believe how well written Last Call At Thr Nightingale was, it truly felt like I was sipping illegal hooch at a NYC speakeasy.