The Impersonator by Mary Miley

A vaudeville actress. A missing heiress. And ten million dollars. Mix in a little 1920s Prohibition and you have Mary Miley's delightful new mystery, The Impersonator. This book had me hooked from page one. Think about it. If you had the chance to become someone else...someone who's been missing and presumed dead for seven years...someone who looks just like you...would you do it? Would you change your mind if there were ten million dollars on the line?

Enter Leah Randall, who's been performing in vaudeville her whole life but who suddenly finds herself jobless and on the way to becoming penniless, too. She has one job offer. To play Oliver Beckett's missing niece, Jessie Carr, heiress to a fortune. Consummate performer that she is, Leah agrees.

"To be sure, masquerading as an heiress would be tricky. I'd been impersonating people all my life, but this was a tougher gig than any I'd ever had, being on stage every waking minute. The challenge roused me from the melancholy that had held me down for weeks. I could do this."

I really admired Leah's spunkiness. She's a likeable and fun heroine. I also enjoyed the sprinkling of stage references Leah makes as she embarks on her new adventure:

"Tuesday, August 19, 1924. opening day for The Return of Jessie Carr, a sensitive drama about a young woman's return to the bosom of her family after years as a vaudeville sensation. The curtain was about to rise on the role of a lifetime...I looked the part. For the first time in my life, I was the headliner."

What she doesn't realize is that not everyone is happy about Jessie's sudden reappearance. Certainly not her two male cousins. Or the person who had a hand in Jessie's mysterious disappearance in the first place. Leah's "role of a lifetime" must might turn out to be her last. If you like well-written, fast-paced and fun mysteries, then this book is a definite must-read!