Review - Wouldn't it be Deadly

Review

Wouldn't it be Deadly by D.E. Ireland
The First Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins Mystery

This book is the first in the Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins Mystery series and was published last year. D.E. Ireland takes the wonderful characters created by George Bernard Shaw and expounds on their lives after the Embassy Ball in 1913. Higgins and Colonel Pickering have gone on two month tour of Spain, studying dialects. Upon their return to London Higgins discovers that Eliza has become the assistant of Maestro Nepommuck, giving diction lessons herself. Not only that, Nepommuck has been advertising is was he who transformed this Cockney flower girl into a lady. Seeking to give the blighter his comeuppance, Higgins delves into the Hungarian's shady past-and gives the information to the papers. What Higgins didn't expect was for someone to then murder the Maestro and for Eliza to find the body! Now Higgins is the number one suspect and Eliza is out to clear his name. 

It takes courage and a bit of nerve to take well known and well loved characters and give them new life. Things could go horribly wrong. However, in Wouldn't it be Deadly things go wonderfully right. D.E. Ireland has taken George Bernard Shaw's wonderful characters and brought them to the world of the cozy mystery.

Having played the character of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion I feel quite an affinity toward her. Reading this book is like reading my story and I was not disappointed. Eliza remains the smart independent woman she's always been. What's also fascinating is watching her relationship with Professor Higgins. Although some critics of the original claim that there is no romance between them, it's hard to deny that there is something there. One can't say what exactly that something is, but there is something; a complicated relationship to be sure.

In Wouldn't it be Deadly we get the familiar characters we know and love thrust into new circumstances with a fine mystery to solve. As for the mystery itself-a victim with a scandalous past providing multiple people with plenty of motive. D.E. Ireland combines familiar characters with historical accuracy and cozy mystery fun in this delightful book.