A Respectable Actress - Dorothy Love

India Hartley, a famous and beautiful actress, is now alone after her father’s death and embarks upon a tour of theaters across the South. Her first stop is Savannah’s Southern Palace. On the eve of the second night’s performance, something goes horribly wrong. Her co-star, Arthur Sterling, is shot dead on stage in front of a packed house, and India is arrested and accused of the crime. A benefactor hires Philip Sinclair, the best 

lawyer in Savannah to defend India. A widower, Philip is struggling to reinvent his worn-out plantation on St. Simons Island. He needs to increase his income from his law practice in order to restore Indigo Point, and hardly anything will bring him more new clients than successfully defending a famous actress on a murder charge.

Because India can’t go anywhere in town without being mobbed, Philip persuades the judge handling her case to let him take her to Indigo Point until her trial date. India is charmed by the beauty of the Georgia lowcountry and is increasingly drawn to Philip. But a locked room that appears to be a shrine to Philip’s dead wife and the unsolved disappearance of a former slave girl raise troubling questions. Piecing together clues in an abandoned boat and a burned-out chapel, India discovers a trail of dark secrets that lead back to Philip, secrets that ultimately may hold the key to her freedom.

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Savannah, Georgia -- December 1870. Stage actress India Hartley is getting ready for a night's performance when she is given a last minute script change. The director tells her that some influential people will be in the audience that night, so he feels the need to up the drama a bit. In one of the most intense scenes, instead of India's character throwing a vase, she is to shoot a prop gun. India is hesitant to try this without practicing but she is given assurance that the gun won't actually fire. When it comes time for India to perform this scene, she goes to fire the gun and to her surprise her co-star falls down dead! India is immediately hauled off to jail where she is held until she can be brought to trial for the murder.

 

"I told Mr. Philbrick I was uneasy about pretending to shoot a gun without a rehearsal, but he insisted."

 

"Surely you didn't intend to fire an actual gun in a crowded theater."

 

"No, sir. Mr Philbrick showed me the prop. He said that the firing pin was missing and it was perfectly safe. During the argument between Mr Sterling's character and mine, I was to grab the gun and level it at Mr. Sterling. The prop man would simulate the sound of gunfire by clapping two pieces of wood together from behind the stage."

 

~ India explaining the script change to the judge 

 

 

India's lawyer, Philip Sinclair, works out a deal with the judge, based on the actress's celebrity, to be held at his family's plantation estate, Indigo Point, on St. Simon's Island (where she can be free from the newspaper hounds). Philip has been trying to rebuild the estate since the close of the Civil War. Indigo Point is where is heart his, he only practices law to pay the rebuild costs. He's hoping taking on the high profile case of popular Miss Hartley will get him a large chunk of much needed renovation funds. 

 

"I apologize for the shabby accomodations," Amelia (Philip's sister) said. "Since the war we've had to make due with the odds and ends the Yankees left behind. They sold everything of value. Except our piano and our resolve."

 

While there, India discovers a room in the main house that appears to be a sort of shrine to a dead woman. She's curious to know more but everyone seems hesitant to discuss the matter. When India does her own investigating, she's startled to find just how close to home the truth hits. 

 

I found this to be a solidly entertaining historical novel with repeating themes from Love's book The Bracelet, (you can find my review here) -- characters never being sure of who to trust and showstopper scenes that seem to come at you from nowhere, but in a good way! Also carried over from The Bracelet, though A Respectable Actress is not necessarily considered a sequel, are the characters Celia & Sutton McKay. FYI for those who have read The Bracelet, this book takes place about 10 years after the close of that novel. 

 

Dorothy Love definitely has a talent for capturing the feel of life in the South, and I really enjoy how her stories bring to life actual events and people from the past perhaps largely forgotten now. For A Respectable Actress and the main character India Hartley, Love pulled from the life of real life 19th century British stage actress Fanny Kemble. What struck me as kind of humorous was to first read the scene where India is offered a chance to meet Fanny Kemble, and then see in the author's note afterward that Kemble's life was the inspiration for India's character. Almost bordering on meta there! 

 

I think my very favorite line in the whole novel was one character's response to another character apologizing: "Words don't cook rice." Perfect response when you have a insincere, half-hearted apology lobbed at you! 

 

Above: Fanny Kemble -- Fun bookish fact about Fanny: her son, Owen Wister Jr., wrote the classic western novel The Virginian, often considered the first "cowboy novel".

 

 

POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING:  This novel contains one scene of suicide. 

 

 

FTC Disclaimer: TNZ Fiction Guild kindly provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.