Review: Death in Heels

Death in Heels by Kitty Murphy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fi is excited to see her best friend Robyn's drag debut as Mae B at drag club TRASH, but things soon go wrong. First, one of the other queens, Eve, borrows Mae's outfit and mocks her performance. Then Fi is given the cold shoulder by the other queens, the unspoken message being that Mae doesn't need her any more. Then finally, whilst walking home alone, Fi comes across Eve's dead body in an alleyway.

Everyone else, including the police, seems happy, if not keen, to rule Eve's death a tragic accident, claiming she was drunk or on drugs, slipped in Mae's skyscraper heels and drowned in the torrential rain which was pooling in the alley. Certainly, other than the bruise on her forehead, which could have been from a fall, there are no signs of foul play. But Fi isn't convinced. If Eve fell why are there no marks on her knees or hands? And claiming that Eve, who could drink a bottle of vodka and still dance in high heels on stage, was drunk enough to fall over seems implausible.

But the more Fi keeps digging the more she is ostracised by Mae and the other queens. Even when Robyn's new boyfriend is deliberately run over they seem determined to ignore the evidence. But Fi is convinced that someone is targeting the drag queens, perhaps Robyn in particular.

This is a hard book to review. The murder plot was god, with plenty of red herrings to keep me guessing along the way. The trouble is, I found almost all of the characters very unlikable which made it an uneasy book to read - obviously it helped that I didn't like any of the suspects but it also didn't make me particularly ill-disposed towards the murderer. In fact, I had some sympathy for the murderer in the end. I also feel that the book perpetrated many of the stereotypes about drag queens and gay men.

Overall, it was okay and different from my usual reading, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read another book by this author.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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