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The Vaudeville Murders
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
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
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 9, 2025
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.
March 24, 2025
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!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews