Ella Shane #6
A Fatal Flourish is the sixth book in Kathleen Marple Kalb’s wonderful series about Ella Shane, a star of the Metropolitan Opera in Gilded Age New York. Ella is a mezzo-soprano who is known for playing male roles, and she is an expert swordswoman, a skill which has proven useful while chasing criminals. She grew up in a tenement on the Lower East Side, as the orphaned daughter of a Jewish mother and an Irish Catholic father. A famous singer discovered what a great voice Ella had and mentored her. Ella has since become a star and married Gil, a British duke, but she has never forgotten her past and is always generous to those less fortunate than she is.
Ella has a group of friends from diverse backgrounds, who are regular characters in the series. Her cousin Tommy, a former boxing champion, manages her career. He is a closeted gay man in a relationship with Cabot, a member of a Knickerbocker family, a descendant of the earliest Dutch settlers of New York. Ella’s closest female friends are the reporter Hetty, who is being courted by lawyer Rowan Alteiss, Marie, a soprano married to Paul, a judge, and Dr. Silver, a female physician. Father Michael, the priest, is a friend to all the characters in the book, and his cousin, a police detective, is simply known as “Cousin Andrew.” Ella also has a friend on the wrong side of the law: the gangster Connor Coughlan, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Ella and Tommy and who, it is strongly suggested, was in love with Ella, even though she didn’t return his affections. He gives Ella protection when she needs it. Ella also considers her servants part of her family. Her cook, Mary O’Hanlon, is being courted by Ella’s cousin Rafe, a handyman who is studying to be an accountant, and her maid, Rosa, wants to be a writer. Recently added to Ella’s family circle, after her marriage to Gil, are her Scottish mother-in-law, the Countess, and her younger stepson Jamie, a delightful young man who is studying criminology.
This book takes place in 1901, as Ella is touring in San Francisco and receives the news of Queen Victoria’s death. Gil must go to London to attend the Queen’s funeral, while Ella returns to New York. It is interesting to read about the various characters’ reactions to the Queen’s death. The Scots, including Hetty and the Countess, mourn her, while the Irish members of Ella’s family don’t feel sad at all, since they blame the Queen for allowing their families to starve.
As soon as Ella arrives in New York, she learns that her arrogant, snobbish older stepson, Charles, has been arrested for murder following a bar brawl where he punched a man who hit his head and died. Ella had not met Charles until that point, but she knows that he, unlike Jamie who took a liking to her immediately, opposed his father’s marriage to her. We find out why: Charles has absorbed the values taught to him in his British public-school upbringing, and he despises both the Irish and Jewish sides of Ella’s family, and the fact that she’s an opera singer. He also hates the thought of another woman taking his mother’s place. Jamie had the same background, but he was never the heir, so these values were not as important to him.
Ella, Tommy, and Jamie visit Charles in prison, and the young man has nothing but contempt for his stepmother but comes to realize she represents the only hope of saving his life. She convinces her friend Rowan Alteiss to defend Charles, even though Charles is so unpleasant that Alteiss tells her he will have a hard time gaining sympathy for him from a jury. The best hope is to argue self-defense, but Alteiss warns Ella that, unless any more evidence turns up, Charles will be convicted of manslaughter, at the very least. The fight happened in the red-light district of Five Points, where it is hard to find witnesses who are willing to talk.
Meanwhile, Ella has been suffering from morning sickness and suspects she is pregnant. When she, accompanied by her solicitous mother-in-law, tries to go to Dr. Silver about her symptoms, she learns that the doctor has been arrested on a charge of obscenity brought by Maitland, an Assistant Commissioner of Police. Ella has encountered Maitland before and knows he is a blackmailer, and worse, but she can’t expose his corruption without also exposing a secret in one of her friends’ families. She does arrange for the doctor to be released quickly, and she finds out she is indeed pregnant. She sends Gil a telegram, and he comes rushing to her side.
Before Gil’s return, though, Ella has learned that a British aristocrat has been in New York, looking for him and speaking of him in a menacing manner. She also learns from the gangster Connor Coughlan that someone has taken out a contract to kill her, but we don’t know if this is the same person who threatened Gil or not. In another development, the police are planning a raid on the Five Points gangs, and Connor is in trouble. Ella is sure Charles was set up in his fight in Five Points, and there might be some connection to the planned raids.
The plot takes many twists and turns along the way, which I will not spoil. Not only is Ella dealing with her pregnancy and all the hopes and fears associated with it, as well as the arrests of Charles and the doctor, the police raids, and the threats against her and Gil, but there are also a couple of romantic subplots among members of Ella’s circle. Most of these are resolved or at least are heading toward a resolution.
I must say that the mystery aspect of this novel is not as strong as in some of the others in Kalb’s series. I guessed who the villain was as soon as that character was introduced, and there’s no pool of suspects. But there is plenty of suspense about how the villain will be caught, and how things will turn out for Ella’s friends and family. To me, the mystery aspect is not the main point of the book. The strength is in the characters of Ella and her circle. They are all lovable characters, and a new book in the series feels like a visit with old friends.
I do not know if this is the last book in the Ella Shane series or not. I hope it isn’t, but I know the series has had its problems. The first book was published at the beginning of the pandemic, then the original publisher dropped the series after three books. I have to say, though, that the cover art didn’t help. It made the books look silly, when they’re not. Luckily, another publisher took up the series and has published the three most recent books. At one point, I heard the publisher was in financial trouble, but I hope this is no longer the case. If this is the end, I will miss Ella and her friends, but if not, I am looking forward to meeting them again. I highly recommend the series to fans of Rosemary Simpson, Alyssa Maxwell, the late great Victoria Thompson, and, especially, Barbara Paul, who also wrote mysteries set in New York’s opera world, at a slightly later time. — Vicki Kondelik