The Flapper Affair

The Flapper Affair is a 1920s time travel, murder-mystery, ghost romance novel by Tam Francis, who connected with my on Instagram and kindly sent me a copy of the book to review.

The story begins with Eduard Hall, who is in his senior year and on a school trip to the Waverly Mansion. However he is a very odd young man who doesn’t fit in with his peers at all – he likes old movies, 1920s jazz music and fashions and finds most of his classmates interests frivolous and lacking any real meaning. 

Whilst there he encounters a mysterious girl who calls herself Mia and it is only when he decides to take a summer job there that he realises she is in fact the ghost of Mia Waverly, who went missing, presumed dead, when her family was murdered 70 years ago.

Not only that, the city have put the museum up for demolition and so begins a race against time for Eduard and Mia to discover who murdered her and why.

Whilst investigating things take a strange turn when through extraordinary forces the two find themselves together on the night when Mia’s family was murdered, presenting a possible opportunity to rewrite the past, even if it means losing each other forever.

This is my first book that I have read by Tam Francis and I absolutely love the blend of genres in this story. I think sometimes when authors do mix genres together in other books I’ve read it can sometimes have very mixed results but the blend really works here. The romance between Eduard and Mia is believable with both characters being well written. I also found the murder mystery to be intriguing and the sci-fi / time travel elements helping to make the romance story even more epic as they slowly realise they may have the chance to change what happens and none of these elements outstay their welcome.

Is is also clear from Francis’ Instagram she has a real passion for the 1920’s era (if you want to check it out you can do so here) and his also really comes across in the story. From the chapters where Eduard and Mia spend the night at the museum together and play the old jazz records the family owned, to Mia teaching Eduard the Charleston and Black Bottom dances, there is plenty of references to the era which Francis writes about very passionately. Black Bottom is also one of the many examples of references Francis makes that I have never heard of (I had heard of Charleston before but not Black Bottom).

The book also has a nice little section at the end where Francis talks about her research for the novel which has plenty of insights into the era and is a great touch for people wanting to find out more from the era.

My only slight critique is I did find the first chapter a bit strange as Eduard didn’t seem to know two of his classmates so called them names in his head which I did get was probably to make him seem more like an outcast but did seem a bit laboured as he already came across as a bit of an outcast so didn’t really need to be stretched anymore. However that part only is quite brief and the story does get much better after this point.

If you have read The Flapper Affair then I would love to know what your thoughts were – let me know in the comments down below!