{I've Been Reading} Murder in the Upper Crust

 Murder in the Upper Crust by Mindy Quigley 

I've been reading the Deep Dish mystery series since the first book and as soon as I see that a new one is coming out, I add it to my to-be-read pile. The writing style always pulls me in and this one is no exception. With most of her staff away, Delilah gets sucked into a last minute catering job for a wellness guru. She also gets stuck attending a late night meditation session and when she should be zipped into her own private pod with a scented candle and personalized app, she's walking across the grounds discovering that something has gone very wrong for one of the other attendees. And, almost despite herself, she does some deep introspection along the way. There's also a newly introduced character I hope to read more about. 

Fire Witch: Kate Claxton and the 1876 Brooklyn Theatre Inferno by Melanie Gall

I had never heard of Kate Claxton, but the description of the theater fire and the other fires that plagued her career intrigued me. The first few chapters were fascinating. I enjoyed reading about the early days of theater in New York. The descriptions of the theater fire, while hard to get through because the author paints such a vivid picture of the tragedy, were fascinating. I love reading about historical disasters and the changes that have been made to prevent those things from happening again. Gradually, the book started to drag. For decades, Kate played one of the title roles in Two Orphans, a popular melodrama, and I started to feel like I'd sat through the thousands of performances myself.  It's a short book that could have been a lot shorter.  

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with review copies.