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Following the trend to give old characters new life (think Wicked, the ever-growing field of Sherlock Holmes spin-offs, etc.), D.E. Ireland turns Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins into amateur detectives, picking up their lives after the closing curtain of My Fair Lady and landing them in the middle of a murder mystery where Henry's old rival Emil Nepommuck is the victim and Henry himself is the prime suspect.
This could have worked well. Eliza Doolittle, Henry Higgins, Colonel Pickering, and Freddy have a lot of chemistry in the musical, and their story and its hummable songs have an enthusiastic following. Ireland slips in references to those songs and tries to keep the characters true to the originals, but somehow, it doesn't come off as well in this novel as it does on stage (or in Pygmalion, for that matter). For one thing, a little bit of Eliza slipping back into flower girl mode, howling ah-ah-oh-ow-ow-oh-ow, and sticking out her tongue in a show of spirit goes a long way, and without the songs and character growth of her earlier incarnations, those actions fall flat, as does Freddy's fawning and - though to a lesser extent - Henry's arrogance.
Another weakness in WOULDN'T IT BE DEADLY lies in the mystery itself. Ireland introduces lots of would-be suspects, but the reader figures out a major twist (if not the motive for it) long before the end of the book, and the reveal of the murderer seems a bit of a cheat, while the scene in which the murderer is revealed crosses the line from comedy into ludicrousness. And though imminent arrest hangs over Henry's head throughout the novel, and Eliza is put in some rather dicey situations, the threats are never very believable, and therefore, the tension never materializes. Meanwhile instead of character development or heart-pounding action, coincidences run rampant and situations often feel contrived (there's an odd interlude with Eliza's father and stepmother in which the stepmother has unbelievably been a witness to a major plot element), and filler scenes are frequent, concentrating on fashion, sugary - and sometimes rather creepy - flirting, and general fluff that neither move the story forward nor enrich the characterizations.
That's not to say it's all bad. There are a few surprises, the biggest of which has nothing much to do with the murder but all to do with Henry himself, and it's interesting. Ireland also shines when it comes to portraying some scenes at the theater and creates a couple of intriguing and believable twists in the plot as well as inserting some fun period references (the story is set in Edwardian London). Unfortunately, those scenes, historical tidbits, and plot twists aren't sustained long enough to make a major impact, and overall, the novel tends to drag. Perhaps more than anything though, it's a simple case of miscasting that does the most harm here. Henry and Eliza are better at matching wits against each other and London society than they are at solving mysteries.
§ Meredith Frazier, a writer with a background in English literature, lives in Dallas, Texas
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier, October 2014
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