Wouldn't It Be Deadly: An Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins Mystery

By D. E. Ireland

Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins make an incomparable pair of sleuths in the start of a delightful new series

Following her successful appearance at an Embassy Ball—where Eliza Doolittle won Professor Henry Higgins' bet that he could pass off a Cockney flower girl as a duchess—Eliza becomes an assistant to his chief rival Emil Nepommuck. After Nepommuck publicly takes credit for transforming Eliza into a lady, an enraged Higgins submits proof to a London newspaper that Nepommuck is a fraud. When Nepommuck is found with a dagger in his back, Henry Higgins becomes Scotland Yard's prime suspect. However, Eliza learns that most of Nepommuck's pupils had a reason to murder their blackmailing teacher. As another suspect turns up dead and evidence goes missing, Eliza and Higgins realize the only way to clear the Professor's name is to discover which of Nepommuck's many enemies is the real killer. When all the suspects attend a performance of Hamlet at Drury Lane, Eliza and Higgins don their theatre best and race to upstage a murderer.

This reimagining of George Bernard Shaw's beloved characters is sheer pleasure. Wouldn't It Be Deadly transports readers to Edwardian London, from the aristocratic environs of Mayfair to the dangerous back alleys of the East End. Eliza and Henry steal the show in this charming traditional mystery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Sep 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781466850354

D. E. Ireland

D. E. IRELAND is a writing team of two Michigan authors who met as undergraduates in an anthropology class and have remained friends ever since. Both are married to computer geeks, and each has one beautiful and brilliant daughter. Lifelong book lovers and history buffs, they have authored several novels on their own.

Reviews for Wouldn't It Be Deadly

[murderbydeath · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Disclaimer: I've never seen My Fair Lady although I'm thoroughly familiar with the premise. This means I can't accurately comment on how accurate the authors' representations of the characters are. So saying, there was a lot to like about this book: the writing was smooth, the pacing consistent and the mystery plotting was excellent. Everything about the book held my attention... until the last scene. It started out well enough, but slowly became eye-rolling; after a brief interlude of plausibility, it freight-trained straight into slapstick, where the authors outdid themselves and pushed straight on through to ludicrous. If their editor cared about them at all, he or she would have ripped out and shredded all the pages after the secondary character, Roz, stepped out of the washroom. There's a second book, but I don't feel the least compelled to read it; the idea of the authors trying to best themselves makes me cringe.

[kathy89_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down but of course, My Fair Lady is one of my favorite movies. It starts where the movie ends. Eliza is working as an assistant for Henry's competition and needless to say, the man is murdered and Henry Higgins is prime suspect. They bicker and argue while investigating to clear Henry. There's a very funny "I love Lucy" moment at the end during a performance of Hamlet. Looking forward to the next one in the series.