Honestly? I don’t know if the cover of Bridget Walsh’s debut historical mystery, The Tumbling Girl, does it justice. I don’t know if I’d read much of the background if I saw it on a library or bookstore shelf. However, it launches a fascinating new Victorian mystery set in a world seldom covered in mysteries, the world of music halls.

Minnie Ward is a scriptwriter at the Variety Palace Hall in 1876. It’s a dangerous time to be a woman in London when the Hairpin Killer is on the prowl. Victims suffer a single knife wound to the thigh, and seven hairpins inserted in the heart after death. The women at the Palace try to protect themselves, but Minnie is devastated when her best friend, Rose, becomes a victim of a different killer. Rose, a tumbler at the Palace, disappeared. No one saw her after she left her house in the morning. But, when her body is found hanging, the police call it suicide.

Minnie and Rose’s mother, Ida, want answers because they don’t believe it’s suicide. They turn to Albert Easterbrook, a private investigator. In the newspapers, he is called “Champion of the Laboring Classes”. He left the police force two years earlier to set up his own business. He takes the case for very little money, but Minnie insists she’s the perfect assistant for him, a young woman with experience as a mimic and actress who can help him talk with the working class.

The case sends them into a world of a private men’s club, where wealth and privilege contrasts with the young women from the music halls who often work both places. Albert and Minnie suspect there’s a connection, but as other women are killed, and there are suggestive pictures going around, they are puzzled. Neither one is willing to give an inch, though. Albert doesn’t want to involve Minnie because he’s falling for her, and Minnie is determined to find Rose’s killer.

The Tumbling Girl is a historical mystery for anyone who appreciates the details of Victorian life. Walsh’s depiction of life behind the scenes of the music hall is fascinating. In addition, she shows the struggles of women who have to make a living, and the lengths they’ll go to survive. Unfortunately, survival isn’t always guaranteed. Victorian London is a violent place, and there are just enough clues at the end of the book so the reader knows the struggles and violence will continue in the sequel.

Walsh’s debut is for those who enjoy Leonard Goldberg’s Daughter of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, or even the Holmes stories. I also saw a mention of Miss Scarlet and the Duke, and I thought, oh, yes.

The Tumbling Girl: A Variety Palace Mystery by Bridge Walsh. Gallic Books, 2023. ISBN 9781913547516 (paperback), 296p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received an ARC from the publicist, with no promise of a review.