ARC Review: "Etiquette for Lovers and Killers" by Anna Fitzgerald Healy ★★★★

ARC Review: Etiquette for Lovers and Killers by Anna Fitzgerald Healy

Amusing and compelling, this murder mystery is Nancy Drew with a touch of Rebecca. A thoroughly bored amateur sleuth gets far more than she wished for when she stumbles into a crime of passion, revealing a world of deceit in a town where even the quietest corners hide the deadliest secrets.

Webster Cottage is the most sophisticated and dangerous place I know. Hom to priceless antiques: Tiffany lamps, Lalique sculptures, and the complete first edition of Audubon’s Birds of America–but nothing is quite as precious as its secrets.

[Contains some spoilers]

PLOT SUMMARY
The setting is Eastport, Maine, in the 1960s where time seems to have slowed to a crawl. Its inhabitants still dress as if the 50s never ended and there is little to see or do. 26-year-old Wilhelmina “Billie” McCadie works in the dress shop but her dream after studying cultural linguistics is to work in a museum. She is, quite frankly, and ironically, bored to death. That is, until something piques her interest.

Expecting to find 2 rejection letters from archive jobs she has applied to, Billie discovers one of the envelopes bears only her PO Box number, with no name or return address. Within it is a love letter addressed to Gertrude and an engagement ring. She then meets the handsome and wealthy yacht-club gentleman, Avery Webster, who invites her to his semiformal summer solstice party on June 19th. There, Billie encounters Gertrude who antagonises guests while she is there. Most importantly, Billie is one of the last to see Gertrude alive and the first to see her dead. Making her, of course, a top suspect.

From there are some twists and turns: trespassing, wiretapping, fake identities, blackmail, eerie phone calls, a stranger in a fedora trying to warn her, cryptic tattoos, more letters, more bodies, even romance. Everybody has a secret. And Billie will have to unravel every last one if she wants to clear her name – and survive.

Was she a villain, a victim, or both? Gertrude was everything that I’m not. She’s the sort of heroine who people write books about. Lovely, brilliant, and insane. I want to know everything I can about her. But I guess I’ll have to start by finding out who killed her.

This is told from the first-person present-tense POV of Billie.

My Advanced Reader Copy, courtesy of Little, Brown Book Group

OVERALL OPINIONS
This was a pleasant surprise to discover that this is Anna Fitzgerald Healy’s debut novel: it is unbelievably well-written and enticing! As far as this goes, it is a great first attempt and I am sure we shall see more things from her.
This one really had my cogs churning the moment the first clue of the letter was produced. Overthinker that I am, I was frantically taking notes (naturally in red pen – we are investigating murder, after all) along the way. Arguably, while the whodunnit part was something I saw a mile away, some aspects of it I didn’t anticipate at all, which struck a nice balance.

“But you longed for the poetic justice of trading one broken heart for another.”

ㅤ🔪🩸👤narrative and descriptions🔎📝❓
The general descriptions in the story and the characteristics of our heroine Billie are among the superior aspects of this tale. Some of the descriptions are incredible and added so much life and insight! Take this one, for example, which is remarkably clever:

The spiral staircase looks like the double helix of a DNA molecule, which is fitting, because this kind of wealth runs in the blood.

Other standout descriptions include:
• “complexions as faded and gray as their newsprint”
• “Our relationship is a lot like this chaise longue: comfortable, well-worn, and designed for hot gossip.”

Not only that but the word choices were excellent too. The “absinthe-green” was especially interesting for the description of the wallpaper in the room where Gertrude is murdered. Absinthe is an alcoholic drink and it has been blamed for inducing seizures and inciting murders – very fitting! The murder itself is very poetic: the green is a complementary colour against the red of Gertrude (her hair, her fuchsia-coloured dress). Owl hoots also appear a few times in this book, symbolic of death.

Chapter 1, with an epigraph about gentlemen introducing themselves to ladies

Along with the lovely epigraphs concerning etiquette per chapter, there are footnotes throughout with definitions for some words that are not only informative with etymologies but also contain some supplied thoughts and quirky remarks from Billie herself, which was exceptionally unique. I particularly liked trollop on page 44 where she says some people argue it comes from trollen (stroll/roll), others argue troll (gremlin/witch/wizard) – Billie asks “But why is it either/or? Why can’t we have both?”. I did laugh – and completely concur. The facts about cloud nine were interesting too, I hadn’t ever thought of it before.

I love stories with a sense of humour and this really had it! There are some great moments in here like:
• when her friend Debbie is “more shocked by [Billie liking a guy] than by the murder”
• the interaction with the tattooist, who asks “You think I tattooed the John Doe when he was still alive?” to which Billie responds “It would be weird if you tattooed him when he was dead”.
• the witty banter between Billie and Avery, like his query “Do you have an embargo on sincerity?”, met with her reply, “It’s tolerated but frowned upon. There’s a steep import tax.”

My personal favourite has to be Billie’s internal monologue upon discovering Gertrude’s body (aside from her jealousy when the maid screams perfectly about it):

What is the polite reaction when one discovers a corpse at a social function? If I make a fuss, I’ll ruin the party and offend the hosts. But if I *don’t* do anything, then I’m the girl who found a body and didn’t bother to inform anyone. A bumbling idiot. A morally deficient human being. A possible suspect.

ㅤ🔪🩸👤literary references🔎📝❓
As someone who read Nancy Drew back when I was a teenager, it is so nice to be able to return to something that reminds me so much of it. Naturally, there was some humour and plenty of clues. But it did explore more than that: Billie’s obsession over Gertrude Taylor –to quote Mr. Woodhouse from Austen’s Emma (a rather missed opportunity here), “Poor Miss Taylor!”– harkened very much to the likes of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. That novel has stuck with me, though it’s been about a decade since I read it. Everyone obsesses over the late Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca, to the extent that the narrator (who is never named) feels inferior and can never be her. There are some parallels:
• Both Rebecca and Gertrude are not the main characters but the “leading lady” who the main characters, the current Mrs. de Winter and Billie, both (willingly or unwillingly) look up to.
• Both die mysteriously, and their death triggers the central mystery.
• Both are murdered at the hands of someone they trusted, one of whom does this deliberately, the other who doesn’t.
• Both the current Mrs. de Winter and Billie alter their looks to match the deceased. The current Mrs. de Winter (unknowingly) wears the same costume Rebecca did to the party, upsetting Maxim. Billie changes her hairstyle, getting the same flipped Hollywood bob as Gertrude’s (looking rather similar, save the colour of hair).

Rebecca (1940) film adaptation,
starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier

The novel constantly links to Austen too: from Billie’s frequent musings on “what would Jane Austen have done?” to her forever carrying a copy of Northanger Abbey, and even to her comparing the arcs of a historical romance to her own unfolding story.

What I really liked about the Northanger Abbey idea is the similarities and contrasts between its main character, Catherine “Cathy” Morland and Billie. Both have unrealistic expectations, but the result of this for each of them is inverted:
• Cathy has unrealistic expectations as she believes the world is full of what she reads in gothic novels: seductions, crimes, villains. She experiences this when she visits Northanger Abbey itself and the mystery behind the Tilney family and the mother’s death. It turns out everything isn’t quite as terrible as she supposes.
• Billie however has unrealistic expectations in the sense that she hopes (and has hoped for a while) that her life will be like the romances she reads and she’ll have secrets and excitement. And she gets to experience that through the mysterious letter to Gertrude, sounding like something “straight out of the novels I devour every night”. It turns out that everything is worse than she supposes.

Northanger Abbey (2007) film adaptation,
starring Felicity Jones and J.J. Feild

Clara’s love of ballet and the discovery of John Tux reminds me immensely of Agatha Christie’s 4.50 from Paddington.

ㅤ🔪🩸👤not quite “elementary”🔎📝❓
One expectation for any murder mystery is that all threads should be solved, loose ends tied up, and red herrings explained. Unfortunately, in this regard, the story disappoints.

┌──────── WARNING ────────┐

[ THIS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
SO STOP READING HERE IF
YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW

TURN BACK NOW

STILL HERE?

OKAY.
LET’S TALK MURDER ]

└───────────────────┘

🧩{ Missing information/conclusions }🧩
We don’t know how or why Gertrude knows the Websters. Sure, presumably social circles. But how long has Gertrude known the Webster family for?
It isn’t explained why Gertrude is strangled and stabbed. I assume she was strangled so she would be unconscious and then was stabbed. But this isn’t ever explained by Billie or the killer.
Some other things that were never revealed:
• who did the prank calls to the grandparents (Edgar)
• who made the call that night asking to be transferred to the police station
• whose cufflink was in Gertrude’s things? Was it Claude’s? Was it planted?
• who wrote each letter? This is unclear. The third typed one is definitely Avery.
• Florence says a policeman “a stranger” asks her not to talk about the case. Was this meant to be Wallace?
• Claude says “all the others” – what others? Other ballet dancers? Other women who annoy him? Victims? This isn’t explored.

🧩{ Character inconsistency }🧩
One minute, Billie is so intelligent like being able to pretend to be other people to get information; the next, she puts her fingerprints all over the murder weapon (which even amateurs know you don’t do) and asks the stupid question “why don’t you like your brother?” to Avery when it is pretty obvious (we are already told she herself finds him revolting and we already know, based on other people, that he is violent). This at times made her character frustrating and I disliked her immensely when she was like this. Perhaps this is simply because I am the same age as her and she is an insult to me!

A few characters like Edgar, Pearl and Teddy disappear about 3/4s of the way through, when they could have been used more as red herrings.

🧩{ Disconnected deceased }🧩
Each murder victim turns out not to be unrelated cases and is just a string of coincidences. Not the same murderer – I have to say I expected 2 out of the 3 to be linked and I think it would have been good to have done this. My mind was running wild with ideas like the following:
• what if Gertrude and Clara went to the same ballet school and Gertrude then climbed up the social ladder (based on what one of the dancers say “You’re feisty. You remind me of a girl who used to dance here. She was a fighter too.”) but there is something about her that Clara knows that she now must be silenced about?
• what if the signs of struggle from Clara is because she attacked someone and they accidentally killed her
• what if Avery, since he is in France, went to visit Clara and killed her?
• what if the Jon Tux is actually Edgar and the man in the fedora isn’t Edgar and he is posing as him?
This then felt extremely anti-climactic.

🧩{ Illogical murders }🧩
• Gertrude is strangled and stabbed and there is said to be no sign of a struggle – but she doesn’t seem to expect it coming based on the reveal scene and I think if it wasn’t expected, there would be a sign of a struggle because of the surprise. Though we do have her surprised expression would she pass out with that expression? It would have all had to have happened quickly for her to maintain that look.
• Clara on the other hand does have sign of a struggle and based on the actual information I don’t think she would have been able to struggle. She was both drunk and high and her laughter caused her murderer to lose it, hitting her multiple times (beating her to a pulp, presumably). This is a huge strong guy, I think after at least two hits she would be well knocked out and unable to fight against him. To put her fully “out of of her misery” (seemingly implying she was still awake and alive), he shot her in the neck. This makes no sense.
• John Tux being murdered by Gertrude because her relationship with him was naturally coming to an end?? This was the thing that bothered me the most. This is exceedingly out of character for her! Women like Gertrude would never kill. She loves climbing social ladders, breaking men’s hearts, ruining people’s lives. Can’t ruin them if they’re dead.

🧩{ Unrealistic moments }🧩
The ballet dancers are all like “Clara’s lover boy” just rang – why was nobody freaking out??? Not a single one of them were freaking out or worrying about the fact that lover boy might just very well be the murderer. Instead they are talking about how sexy his voice is and what car he may or may not drive? And handing the class schedule to him on a silver platter. What?

🧩{ Insignificance }🧩
• The significance of the Gone with the Wind book could have been explored. The character of Rhett Butler is a charismatic man whose passion can often result in manipulation and violence towards Scarlett O’Hara. It could have added some obvious foreshadowing in the narrative which is a huge missed opportunity. • The name of the speedboat Poppy could have been an interesting clue or something, but isn’t. Poppy could have been his nickname for Gertrude for example, seeing as her hair is red, or a darker tone: poppy seeds = sleep = endless sleep = death.
• Vicki, one of the dancers, has a date and there is no significance to this. I thought Billie was going to be worried that she was meeting Clara’s murderer and was going to be the next victim and was going to follow her.
• Avery gives Billie a tour of the place, going past the whirlpool Old Sow and the lighthouse. I thought there may be some significance to this, like perhaps he takes Billie out on the boat again but threatens to throw her in near the whirlpool this time or something potentially dramatic with his boat.

🧩{ Others }🧩
• While I absolutely adored the idea that tub was gnt upside down, this doesn’t work as a concept: a lowercase t does not look the same upside down, especially if it was fancy.
• The pacing wasn’t so great in the middle and didn’t give the sense of urgency that I think was needed. More could have been made of the fact this was about to become a cold case and time was running out.
• It should have been made clear from the moment the body of Clara is discovered that she was the woman Billie bumped into at the Pie Baking Contest. It is covered a little later on but I was literally like “who?”

ㅤ🔪🩸👤to conclude🔎📝❓
Overall, this is a 3.5 rounded up. Despite the plot's occasional missteps and inconsistencies (with the exception of Billie, who generally shone), Anna Fitzgerald Healy’s debut is a well-written and compelling mystery. This type of murder mystery has considerable potential and I am looking forward to seeing this develop over time.

<< Positives >>
🠚 A well-written debut
🠚 Engaging, well-balanced mystery
🠚 Thought-provoking
🠚 Pretty cover
🠚 The inclusion of a map (from someone who isn’t American, this is useful to see Maines)
🠚 Very witty dialogues and protagonist
🠚 Captivating literary references and symbolism
🠚 Clever and excellent descriptions
🠚 Unique footnotes defining words
🠚 Plenty of aspects to tell you it is set in 1964-5 (other than the obvious year listed) such as Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding dress from 1964 being discussed; My Fair Lady, released in 1965

<< Negatives >>
🠚 The loose ends weren’t tied up in a satisfactory way
🠚 Unexplained plot holes
🠚 Missing key information
🠚 Billie’s character inconsistencies
🠚 Underutilized supporting characters
🠚 Murders felt disconnected
🠚 Illogical death details
🠚 Motive for victim #3’s killer is out of character
🠚 Unrealistic character reactions
🠚 Unexplored symbolic elements
🠚 Uneven pacing

FAV QUOTES
• That’s the thing about old money–it hides things. It takes each ugly truth, salacious lie, brutal kiss, and tepid embrace, then swallows them whole. • our dwindling human population is outnumbered by seagulls ten to one.
• “Perhaps you could tutor me in some of the finer points of conversation?” “I doubt you could afford me. I went to school for linguistics, so I’m terribly overpriced.”
• Who is Gertrude? Clearly someone adept at flirting. Someone who drives men so wild with desire that they lose their ability to properly operate a stamp and an address.
• I’m “accomplished,” but accomplishments went out of style decades ago. We live in the same town, but proximity has no bearing when you live worlds apart. • Because there’s nothing quite so macho as getting shipwrecked for absolutely no reason.
• those memories aren’t quite so awful. Because my grief has softened. It isn’t a whirlpool anymore, but more like the salt air–faint but pervasive. And it doesn’t stifle me because I’ve learned how to breathe.
• A Sadie Hawkins date is when a girl asks a boy out, but what do you call it if she does so over blackmail?
• As if there were some rule book for flirting and felonies. A book of etiquette for lovers and killers.
• There are certain skills that a young lady must hone for a rainy day–like learning to ice a layer cake, ride equestrian, or breaking and entering.
• Along with Edgar’s fedora and the misuse of their, there, and they’re, “holiday salad” is one of my greatest fears.
• Just because I’m breaking and entering doesn’t mean it’s okay to track snow through the house, so I pull a pair of pink slippers out of my tote bag and set them on the doorstep. Rule #4: Always be a good houseguest, whether or not you’re invited.
• Who needs a life when you’re busy investigating a murder?
• The average American has about thirty-two thousand words in their vocabulary, while more advanced English speakers have approximately forty-five thousand words at their disposal. As a trained linguist, I know at least fifty-two thousand words, yet none of them could sufficiently describe this situation to Detective Wallace. Although I’m pretty sure that a few of them could get me arrested.
• There is a certain safety in narration. In writing rather than living. Being a protagonist is such a risky occupation, it’s far safer to be the narrator and observe the situation from afar. To find the poetry in a blizzard, the irony in an icy road, and the suspense in a car barreling forward with zero visibility.
• She played with fire in her romantic relationships, while I’m playing with fire now, on my hunt for her killer.
• Let me worship at the altar of your beauty, then burn it to the ground.
• He studies me as if I were a painting in a museum, with appreciation, as if all of my imperfections were beautiful.

══════════ ⋆★⋆ ══════════

I received an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review and I’d like to thank Anna Fitzgerald Healy and Little, Brown Book Group for the opportunity. This has not affected my opinion in any way.

A huge thank you to the Little, Brown Book Group Influencer program for providing me with a paperback copy.

“Etiquette for Lovers and Killers” is out Aug 7th!