Murder At the Mikado by Julianna Deering

When a celebrated ACTOR IS FOUND MURDERED IN HIS DRESSING ROOM, all signs point to Drew's old flame. But behind the curtains nothing is what it seems and this quickly becomes hisMOST puzzling case YET.
Just as Drew Farthering thinks his life has calmed down some, Fleur Landis, a former girlfriend, reappears, in dire need of his help. She's married now, no longer an actress--but the lead actor in her former troupe's production of The Mikado has been murdered, and Fleur is the police's number one suspect.

Drew would rather focus on his fiancée, Madeline Parker, and their upcoming wedding, but he can't leave Fleur and her family in the lurch--even if she did break his heart once. As Drew, Nick, and Madeline begin investigating, they discover more going on behind the scenes of the theater troupe than could ever have been imagined. It seems nearly everyone had a motive, and alibis are few and far between.

Both the murder case and the presence of the beautiful, exotic Fleur put a heavy strain on Drew and Madeline's relationship. Will their still-young romance survive the pressure?

My review:
  I have really enjoyed this series. It is rare on the Christian market to find books where a man is the main character of the story, especially when the books are written by a female author. My hat is off to Juliana Deering for doing so.

  This is the third, and I assume final book in the Drew Farthering Mystery Series, and may be the best one yet. Amid wedding preparations, the main character and his fiancee' get pulled into another mystery. As the bodies pile up, they try to help the local police department solve it as they try to finalize their wedding plans.

  This book was great on the mystery element. There were several suspects, and I could not narrow it down who the bad guy - or women - was. As with the other two books in the series, this book is set in England in the 1950's, and is reminiscent of mysteries from that time period such as Agatha Chyristie, Sherlock Holmes, etc. There is none of the modern day methods of solving crimes, which I would think would make it more challenging to write a story, but the author pulls it off remarkably well. She came up with a great plot, and spun a very suspenseful mystery around it with her familiar characters from the other two books, along with some new ones.

  I have read more suspenseful novels, but this was a very enjoyable read and a nice change from the more modern suspense novels I read. I highly recommend the series, and they should be read in order.

About the author:

Julianna Deering has always loved British history and literature and is particularly a fan of the classic mysteries written by Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. She graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas and now works for an attorney specializing in wills and estate planning. She lives outside Dallas, Texas, where she loves to quilt, cross-stitch, and watch hockey. Learn more at www.juliannadeering.com.

Murder At the Mikado is available from Bethany House Publishers, part of the Baker Publishing Group.

Thanks to Bethany House for the review copy.