A Resolution at Midnight by Shelley Noble

A Resolution at Midnight by Shelley Noble
Narrator: Erin Bennett
Series: Lady Dunbridge Mystery #3
Published by Macmillan Audio on October 13, 2020
Source: Purchased
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Length: 11 hrs 13 mins
Pages: 368
Format: Audiobook
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Roasted chestnuts from vendor’s carts, fresh cut spruce trees lining the sidewalks, extravagant gifts, opulent dinners, carols at St Patrick’s Cathedral, a warm meal and a few minutes shelter from the cold at one of the charitable food lines ...

It’s Christmas in Gilded Age Manhattan.

And for the first time ever an amazing giant ball will drop along a rod on the roof of the New York Times building to ring in the New Year. Everyone plans to attend the event.

But the murder of a prominent newsman hits a little too close to home. And when a young newspaper woman, a protégé of the great Jacob Riis and old Vassar school chum of Bev’s, is the target of a similar attack, it is clear this is not just a single act of violence but a conspiracy of malicious proportions. Really, you’d think murderers would take a holiday.

Something absolutely must be done. And Lady Dunbridge is happy to oblige in A Resolution at Midnight, the third book in this delightful series.

A Resolution at Midnight is the third book in Shelley Noble’s Lady Dunbridge historical mystery series. I didn’t read the first two books, and I think I would have enjoyed this one a bit more if I had. This mystery itself worked well as a stand-alone, but I was missing out a bit on the characters’ backgrounds. We start the story with Philomena Amesbury, the young Dowager Countess of Dunbridge – Phil to her friends – is getting ready for her first Christmas in New York. She gets a note from Mr. X sending her to a theater, where she ends up sitting by a dead (murdered) man. She, of course, then gets wrapped up in the mystery of who it was and who killed him. I guess a little more information on how she ended up working for Mr. X and why she puts up with him. Mr. X never seem to share information and doesn’t give her much direction on what he’s expecting her to do. And don’t even get me started on their personal relationship. Once again, if I knew how they met, maybe it would make sense, but as it is, Phil shares her bed with this man, Mr. X, whose name she doesn’t know, whom she has only seen in daylight wearing a variety of costumes, who breads into her house and takes things from her safe whenever he wants. I found it disturbing, not sexy and mysterious.

Turns out the dead man was a journalist, which leads to several potential suspects, a crooked cop, a dirty politician, the mystery group known as the Black Hand. With bombings occurring in the city, Phil has to be especially careful.

Aside from Mr. X, the characters are a lot of fun. Phil is smart and caring and has done well at making a new life for herself. Her servants, Preswick and Lily, are aware of their positions but also extremely protective of Phil and join in her investigations. Detective Sergeant John Atkins is one of the few good cops. The paper boy, Just a Friend, is also incredibly loyal, and Phil’s friend Bev from finishing school is light-hearted and livens things up a bit.

I’m not sure if I’ll read the next one or not, to be honest. Mr. X bothers me, but if we find out who he is in #4, I might be able to overlook it. The setting is wonderful, I loved learning about New York in the 1900s. And the midnight of the title, is of course midnight on New Year’s Eve, the first time the ball drops at Times Square.