Playing Mrs. Kingston by Tony Lee Moral {Goodreads}
Published
by Porfirio Press (Zharmae) in 2014
E-book
edition; 378 pages {BookDepository}
“It’s the ‘50s in New York City, and
Catriona Benedict has big dreams, but when her first promising gig as an
actress is a flop, she has to figure out some other way to make a living in the
big city. Enter Miles Kingston, a rich and influential playboy who, for reasons
of his own, asks Catriona to take on the biggest role of her life…as his wife.
Despite her boyfriend’s misgivings about the arrangement, Catriona knows that
this could easily be the most lucrative acting job she’s ever had. All she has
to do is keep up the act for a few weeks, and she’ll walk away with thousands. When
tragedy strikes, the whole arrangement threatens to strangle Catriona. She
quickly realizes that living with the Kingston family is a much more delicate
and dangerous affair than she ever could have guessed. And if she isn’t
convincing in the role of Mrs. Kingston, much more than just her acting career
will be at stake.”
{First of all, I need to thank the author, Tony Lee Moral, for allowing me to read his book in exchange of an honest review}
{First of all, I need to thank the author, Tony Lee Moral, for allowing me to read his book in exchange of an honest review}
Playing Mrs. Kingston follows Catriona Benedict, a
struggling Broadway actress, and how her life is shaken up when a rich man,
Miles Kingston, comes into the theater and makes her an offer she can’t
possibly refuse: to marry him in exchange of money. That way both of them win.
He would be able claim his inheritance (since he was required to be married in
order to do so) and Catriona would have enough money to leave America and go live
in Italy with her boyfriend Mario and also, pay some debts. Little does she
know about where she’s going into. Though the deal is supposed to last a few
weeks, misfortune happens and Catriona finds herself in the middle of a mystery
that not only threatens her promised money, but also her life.
This book
was so much fun to read. The mystery itself was very well-thought and nicely
structured; some twists here and there kept me guessing throughout the entire
novel and Playing Mrs. Kingston was
indeed a deeper story than I thought it would be. Right from the beginning,
Tony Lee Moral starts building the atmosphere of the story. You end up
mistrusting everybody and although I see a bit of one of the twists coming – you
might be wondering how I could see only one bit of a twist... but what I mean is
that I figured who were the people involved but not really the stuff they were
involved into. Does it make any sense? It’s the best I can do to explain it without
spoiling anything – I still enjoyed the resolution of the novel a lot.
Another
thing I really appreciated about the book was the writing style. It was rich
yet simple and when you’re dealing with mystery novels, you need something easy
to follow. Also, being based in the ‘50s I think added something more to the
whole story. Finally, the characters. I liked some alright and they were consistent
(thank you!) but I didn’t care for a few of them. Catriona was a strong and
stubborn woman and all she’s trying to do is survive in the jungle that the
rich society is. But she also annoyed me a bit, as well as her boyfriend Mario.
He was possessive and saw threads where there weren’t any; many times he got
in the way and made things worse, which was irritating. But he really loved
Catriona so that redeemed him in my eyes. My favourite character was Freddie. So funny
and sassy. Unlike the Kingston family, in general. Just saying.
So, all in
all, Playing Mrs. Kingston was a
great thriller for me and I do recommend reading it if you are a fun of the
genre.
My Rating: