It’s 1870 and Dorothy Love’s “A Respectable Actress” opens with a literal bang as gunfire erupts at the Southern Palace Theater in Savannah. The city’s beloved actor, Arthur Sterling, is shot dead and renowned traveling actress India Hartley is quickly blamed.
A stranger in the quaint Georgia city, India surprisingly finds help from Celia Mackay, a character from Ms. Love’s former novel “The Bracelet,” who hires the dashing Philip Sinclair to act as India’s lawyer.
What follows is a novel full of twists and turns — both relating to India’s case and storylines from the characters’ personal lives. Ms. Love does a great job filling the plot with surprises that keep the reader guessing and throwing in plotlines the reader will never see coming.
“Actress” is filled with many great characters. Besides India, Philip and Celia, there’s Philip’s beloved sister Amelia; the quirky girls India meets on St. Simons Island, including former slave Binah; the strange and elusive Mrs. Catchpole; and India’s fellow theater workers. (Interesting tidbit, there is also an Alicia, so the author must have a thing for names ending in -ia).
Ms. Love tackles many themes throughout the story, including taking chances, having faith in each other, deception and duplicity, love, betrayal and courage.
“A Respectable Actress” was a great historical fiction novel, with a little romance, a little mystery and suspense, and a whole lot of a thrill.
Five stars out of five.
Thomas Nelson provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.