The Vaudeville Murders: A Libby Seale Mystery

by Joseph Zellnik, Miriam Zellnik

The first in a series of historical mysteries set in the Pacific Northwest in the 1890s!

Libby Seale – a recent transplant from New York’s Lower East Side – enjoys the glamor and the bustle of her work as a seamstress at Crowther’s Portland Variety. That is, until the murder of her friend Vera Carabella, a magician’s assistant, reveals a darker side to her new home town. When the local police decline to pursue the case, Libby steps in to find the culprit herself, and finds herself drawn into a web of intrigue that involves a series of missing showgirls and a sinister network of tunnels running just below the city’s placid streets.

In the course of her investigation, Libby forms a partnership (and maybe something more) with dashing newspaperman, Peter Eberle, and together they uncover some unsettling secrets about the prosperous and rapidly-expanding metropolis. But will secrets from her own past spell doom for their burgeoning romance?

This is a newly-edited and lightly-revised version of the previously-published, “Murder at the Portland Variety”.

“This debut novel by a brother-sister team introduces a charming pair of investigators, Libby's strength and courage playing nicely against Peter's endearing maverick streak. Look forward to further adventures in this promising historical series.” – Barbara Bibel, Booklist © American Library Association

“Nineteenth-century Portland has an undercurrent of danger, with girls having disappeared from dark tunnels and the “otherness” of its Chinatown neighborhood. [The Zellniks] deftly evoke both the menace and the veneer of respectability its prominent citizens desire, introducing those on the fringes and those in the spotlight. The mystery is well-crafted and propelled by the very human characters.” – Ellen Keith, Historical Novel Society

"A solid mystery teeming with period detail. It will satisfy mystery and history fans." – Salem Statesman Journal

304 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 30, 2025

About the author

Joseph's two great loves are mysteries and musical theatre, and all his books relate to one (or both!) of these categories, including the recent Musicals Are Murder series which place fictional crimes against a backdrop of real theatre history. Beyond the literary sphere, Joseph is a Drama Desk-nominated theatrical composer, best known for the off-Broadway hit "Yank!", which has had successful productions in New York, London, Manchester, Brisbane and Rio de Janeiro (Winner 2017 CENYM Award for Best Musical) as well as numerous cities around the US.

Reviews

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The setting is offbeat and interesting, a Portland OR vaudeville theater where she's a seamstress. I like the protagonist. She's plucky but not unrealistic as so many period mystery characters can be, and has an unexpected back story. She gets involved in a mystery when a dancer at the theater is found murdered in one of the tunnels under the city, and teams up with a young reporter. Her back story complicates the plot in realistic ways. A solid and entertaining story, too.

[Jonathan Sayer V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amidst a rogues gallery of murder suspects it was a joy to follow Libby Seale and her handsome, adventurous reporter-fella Peter through the 1890 alleys of Portland Oregon. The first in a series of mystery novels - "The Vaudeville Murders" is a well-crafted whodunit that explores shifting societal norms from one century into the next as it literally takes us (with quite a few unexpected twists) into the underbelly of the Victorian West Coast. Please, please give us more!