Book Review: Moonlight Over Mayfair

Moonlight Over Mayfair is Anton du Beke's follow-up novel to 2018's One Enchanted Evening.

The book picks up pretty much where the previous one left off. It's the late 1930s, and a new war is looking imminent. The threat of war is making things tough for the Buckingham Hotel, which is increasingly struggling to make ends meet, and is looking for investment to keep it going.

Like the first book, all of the principle characters have secrets to keep from each other. As the reader, we are privy to most of the secrets, and watch the characters agonise over what to tell and what to keep secret.

The bulk of the story surrounds principle dancer Raymond de Guise. Successful recent meetings in California have opened up the possibility of a career in Hollywood. Raymond dreams of starting a new life in the US with chambermaid girlfriend Nancy Nettleton, but what does she want?

The disappointing thing about this book is that there are few surprises for the reader. You can pretty much see where things are going all the way through the book. A more experienced novelist would add a few more twists and turns, but Anton pretty much leads you through the plotlines so you cannot fail to see what's coming next. It's a reasonable enough story, the characters are engaging enough, and I did care enough about them to read on. I just felt that as though I wanted to be moved a bit more emotionally.

Moonlight Over Mayfair is available now.

Disclosure: Thank you to the nice folks at Bonnier Zaffre publishing who kindly sent me a copy of the book to review.