Passing Fancies
A Julia Kydd Novel
Marlowe Benn
Lake Union Pub, Jun 2020
327 pages
Historical Cozy
Provided by Author via NetGalley
⭐⭐⭐🌙 3.5 Stars
The cover coordinates with the previous one, which was black and gold and looked similar. I love the stylized flapper, so elegant for this series.
The story is historical, as in the 1920s during the Jazz renaissance and a period when it was rather scary to be a person of color in our country. Julia has a high class, totally white background, and is now exposed to not only the black jazz community but a black woman who can pass as white. This has a whole bundle of issues all its own aside from just being a woman of color, as we find out in Passing Fancies. It’s a brutal world that Julia gets a glimpse into. Sitting here reading this book at a time when we watch similar violence and brutality currently on the evening news makes this book span the century and become all that much more relevant.
The mystery doesn’t come in until much later in this book than in the first one, but that’s because we spend so much time following around Julia and her new friends to parties and clubs before we get too deeply into back rooms and dark alleys. This isn’t as strong a story as the first book was. It doesn’t seem to hold together quite as well at times. I’m interested in seeing where the author takes Julia from here. Recommended.
a thoughtful reveal 
That is a great cover! The book sounds like a good read.
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