Customer Reviews

Anything Goes (Grace and Favor Mysteries, No. 1)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this mystery--I have read all the books in the mystery series featuring Jane Jeffry. I think this book will be the start of an interesting new series for the author. The locale and time frame are entirely different from what she has done before. It takes place in New York in the 1930's, with an interesting brother and sister combo as the main characters. Lily and Robert Brewster have fallen on hard times after the crash of 1929 and are living a very hand-to-mouth existence. They jump at the chance at going to live in their uncle's estate after his untimely death. Their living there come with certain conditions, however. By starting to fulfill these conditions, they discover that their uncle's death may not have been an accident. When they begin to ask questions about it, they find out that they may be looked on as suspects! The book was completely enjoyable and a must for those who enjoy her other mystery series.

Prior to Anything Goes, the first book in the Grace and Favor series, Jill Churchill, was well known for her Jane Jeffrey mysteries. While I moderately enjoyed titles like Grime and Punishment or Silence of the Hams which featured a suburban mother of three turned detective, I found the blurbs for Antything Goes quite intriguing. And now that I've read it, I must say Anything Goes, is a delightful and fun read even if you don't always favor murder mysteries.

Lily Brewser and her brother, Robert, are unfortunate vitims of the Depression. Born to wealthy parents they lived a life of luxury until that fateful day when the market crashed and their father committed suicide. Working at tiresome jobs and sharing a small apartment in Manhattan, they experience great difficulties in making ends meet. Then they are informed that their great-uncle died recently and left them his large home on the Hudson.

On their first visit, not only do they meet a cast of characters that either come with the house or live nearby, but they also learn the terms of the inheritance of this Grace and Favor home. Grace and Favor is an English term which refers to living in a home and maintaining it for a period of time after which you totally inherit the house. And as the Brewsters feared they cannot sell the house for a very long time if ever. There is the requisite murder which involves their great uncle and a growing affection for Lily on the part of an area newspaperman.

Just the other day I came across the second book in this series called, In the Still of the Night, which was recently published. Now I can't decide whether to gulp it down immediately or wait for a lazy summer's day.

After the 1929 crash, young brother and sister Lily and Robert Brewster go from New York's high society to living in poverty. Lily doesn't even have proper clothes to wear to her low-paying job at the bank, and they can barely afford to eat. When their great uncle dies and leaves them his mansion in the country, they at least have a place to live, but they have to live in the mansion ten years before they can collect the fortune that goes with it. Taking in boarders helps them support themselves, but other problems arise. For one, it turns out uncle didn't die naturally but was murdered, and they're suspects. I loved this book. It's a little bit history and a little bit fairy tale, as well as a good mystery. I hope this is the beginning of a new series and that there will be more very soon.

Lily Brewster and her brother, Robert, had lived among the idle rich until the crash of 1929. Since the onset of the Depression, both Robert and Lily have barely been eking out a living. When they receive an unexpected summons in the paper, the two journey to the property of their deceased great-uncle Horatio Brewster only to discover they have inherited his entire estate complete with stipulations. Having agreed to the conditions of the will, Robert and Lily relocate to the mansion they now call Grace and Favor cottage only to gradually find themselves embroiled in gossip surrounding Uncle Horatio's death. When it is suspected that he was murdered and another dead body is found in their home, Lily and Robert find themselves connecting the two deaths and on the hunt for the murderer.

Better known for her contemporary surburbia mysteries, Jill Churchill has struck out admirably upon a new series set in the thirties. With Robert and Lily Brewster, she has created a somewhat off-center yet engaging duo. What makes these protagonists unusual to both readers and characters in the book itself, is that Lily is clearly the brain of this outfit while Robert is deceptively indifferent. Though he does manage to surprise his sister and the other characters with his occasional insight, it is Lily who gathers the information and does most of the sleuthing. Her help, and sources, lie in the characters that live in the area and will likely recur. They include Uncle Horatio's attorney and his wife as well as Jack Summer, a struggling and earnest reporter. Anything Goes is a tightly drawn mystery that interweaves the misery of the Depression with the desperation of people struggling with its aftermath. In the ten years Robert and Lily must remain at the cottage, it can be anticipated that this team of brother and sister will come across more strange occurrences that must be solved. I look forward to joining them again.

What a wonderful addition to Jill Churchill's Jeffrey books. And a rather different situtation--sister and brother set in the early part of the 20th century. Reminds me of Tommy and Tuppence that Agatha Christie wrote. Can't wait for more in this fabulous new series. Lots of fun to read and they take you away from everyday life for a few minutes. Good clues and plot.

Lily and Robert Brewster (sister and brother) are formerly upper-middle-class young adults who have been thrown into poverty by the Depression. Suddenly they find themselves the owners of an upstate New York mansion, bequeathed to them by an almost-forgotten, rich, great uncle. The bequest comes along with the requirement that they live in the mansion for 10 years.

When they arrive at the mansion, they find the area populated by the usual "cast of strange characters" that comes along with most whodunits: people with various reasons for hostility toward each other - or, more importantly, hostility toward the recently deceased great uncle. It soon becomes clear that there was something not quite convincing about the official explanation of the great uncle's death (surprise, surprise) and Lily and Robert begin to investigate.

So, the plot outline is standard stuff for mysteries of this kind. Therefore the quality of the book depends on the characterizations, the atmosphere, and the plausibility of the plot. I'm happy to report that Churchill handles all three of those things wonderfully. Lily is the no-nonsense, responsible member of the pair of sleuths, and Robert is the carefree, slightly irresponsible, fun-loving one (and he's delightful). The atmosphere of the depression is vivid and rings true, but on the other hand it doesn't weigh the book down with gloom. The plot is completely believable, and I wasn't able to guess the guilty party until almost at the very end. (Not that I tried very hard; I read these books for the atmosphere and the satisfaction of a conclusive ending, rather than as a puzzle to be figured out before the end of the book.)

At any rate, if you're a fan of the cozy Agatha Christie type of mystery, then this should be on your list. This is the first Jill Churchill book I have read, and I look forward to the others.

Twenty-four year old socialite Lily Brewster and her brother Robert, two years older, are victims of the stock market crash of 1929. Their family money is gone, their father commits suicide. Forced into the practically non-existent job market with little skills and no experience, Lily finds a job in a bank sorting checks, a job she hates. Robert becomes a paid escort or, when the opportunity arises, the maitre d' in one of the posh restaurants such as Café Savarin, Fraunces Tavern, Luchow's, or Algonquin, that have survived the Depression. Rescue from their pitiful existence comes in the form of an entailed inheritance from their Great Uncle Horatio who deeds them his mansion, renamed Grace and Favor Cottage, and his millions if they make Voorburg-on-Hudson their home for ten years. Confirmed New Yorkers, they view this clause as nothing less than exile. However, circumstances being what they are, Lily and Robert take up residence and soon are investigating Uncle Horatio's death, one which looks more and more like murder each day. Anything Goes is a delightful first in a new series with a strong heroine and an endearing hero.

I love the Jane Jeffrey mysteries, so I was apprehensive that Jill Churchill would be diluting her talents. Never fear. Ms. Churchill's humor and intelligence shine through in this new book. The sister and brother protagonists are winning and sympathetic. The historical setting gives the mystery and characterizations more meaning, as the Great Depression brought out the best and worst in people. Now I get to look forward to two new Jill Churchill mysteries a year. Hooray!

Jill Churchill's, "Anything Goes," is the first of the "Grace and Favor" series. It is light, but it is MAGNIFICENT. Charmingly, the books in the series are named after various hit songs from the period. The series chronicles the adventures of Lily Brewster and her brother Robert as they make the transition from high-living lifestyle of the idle rich to the depths of the stockmarket ruin and father's subsequent suicide to their miraculous inheritance of the Grace and Favor mansion from a distant relative.

"Grace and Favor" refers to the house that they have renamed. Although, rather than a true "Grace and Favor Trust" - which allows tenants the use of an estate during their lifetime only -Lily and Robert will inherit the mansion and the estate if they adhere to the stipulations in their Uncle Horatio's will and reside in the small town for 10 years.

Although, on the surface this may sound hokey - "down and out kids inherit from long-lost relative" - it truly works and is believable.

It opens with Lily Brewster, hot and miserable from her bank teller's job, looking back at the lifestyle that she used to live. It is upbeat, but rather than glibbly glossing over their depression-era life, Churchill lets the reader know how Lily has nothing in common with the other tellers; how Robert's job is akin to socializing with the gang rather than confronting the reality that he now has to work as a waiter and escort to make a living; how the apartment is small with no bath tub and thin walls; and how all their family's possessions have been sold.

Churchill also doesn't tritely make life wonderful when the characters go to the Grace and Favor mansion. She depicts the sacrifices for social butterfly Robert in leaving the excitement of New York behind. It also reveals his thrill in discovering the Dusenberg Model J car that with his attention will soon be in excellent condition.

Churchill not only makes this a spiffy little mystery - she makes her characters believable in the 1930's setting.

As a native of the Hudson Valley and a longtime fan of Jill Churchill, I was delighted to see the new Grace and Favor series. Lily and Robert Brewster, formerly the upper crust of New York City society and now indirect victims of the Crash of '29, are surviving as best they can on their limited marketable skills. A barely-remembered great-uncle dies suddenly and leaves them a fortune--with strings . . .

Jill Churchill has small-town life along the Hudson in the early days of the Depression down cold; her research is so evident in the book that I could find "Voorburg-on-Hudson" on a map. The second book in the series, In the Still of the Night, is stronger in plot and has more red herrings, but Anything Goes has more character background and development. Together they are a very intriguing beginning to a series that I hope will be expanded drastically.