The Picture House Murders – 1920s Cozy Mystery from Fiona Veitch Smith

Last Updated on April 22, 2026

No stranger to the world of cozy crime, author Fiona Veitch Smith has already had huge success with her Poppy Denby Investigates Series, which has six books in the collection.

Then, in 2023, she began her Miss Clara Vale books, the first of which is The Picture House Murders.

They are quintessential cosy crime novels featuring a formidable lead and a well-thought-out plot and, given they are set in the late 1920s, have a healthy dose of historical intrigue.

I really loved this book, which at times moved at a blistering pace and I would happily recommend Ms Vale and her amateur sleuthing to anybody looking for a new series of books to read.

So what are they all about and just who is Miss Clara Vale?

Clara Vale

It is 1929, and Clara Vale is a 30-year-old woman who, despite the times she lives in, is adamant about living her life without the constraints and social norms of the time.

She is one of the first women to have ever graduated from University, enrolling in the first year they finally accepted women, and now, with a degree in chemistry from Cambridge, she finds herself working in a library.

Why? Because dear readers, it is 1929, and nobody wants to hire a woman. So, taking the only job she could get, she steadfastly refuses to accept her father’s stipend or get married.

Of course, she’s not happy, but all of that is about to change.

Unbeknownst to Clara, her beloved Uncle Bob has recently died in Newcastle. She only finds out after he has already been buried when she is notified that he has left her something in his will.

So, taking time out from her job, she heads north and soon discovers that Uncle Bob has pretty much left her everything.

That includes his house, about £15,000 in cash and stocks and his Private Detective Agency. All in all, folks, that’s worth about £1.4 million in today’s money!

Stunned by the revelation that she is now an incredibly wealthy woman, her biggest decision is what to do with it all.

Should she sell the business and house, take the money and bid farewell to Newcastle? Or should she follow her Uncle’s wishes and carry on the business and become a private detective?

With only a few days to decide, she is at a bit of a loss. And then she meets Alice.

Alice and her Picture Houses

Alice is a woman who appeals to Clara to help her carry on a case Bob was working on.

She and her husband had two successful picture houses and just as they had sunk their money into new tech to convert the cinema to talkie movies, the first venue burned down.

The blame was placed on Alice’s family, the insurance refused to pay out and then in a tragic turn of events, Alice’s husband was killed in an accident.

On the verge of losing everything, Alice needs Clara to prove it was arson and get the insurance company to pay out.

The complication is that the head of the insurance company, Mr Balshard, also happens to own his own newly built string of picture houses – coincidence or not?

With Clara deciding she will try to help, she soon realises that solving this case will be a lot more difficult than she first thought.

She’s David up against Goliath, so can she repay her uncle’s faith in her and get to the bottom of what really happened?

Maybe, if she can overcome the obstacles being put in her way…

A Sign of the Times

There’s a lot to like about this book, not least of which is the setting of 1920s England, where all that was expected of a woman was to look pretty, marry well and have a small army of children while dutifully looking after her husband.

And while Clara Vale certainly rebukes this particular life for herself, Veitch Smith doesn’t shy away from the difficulties facing a young woman who wants more for herself.

Finding a job is near on impossible, sexism is rife at every turn, and nobody really takes her seriously.

Even to get her inheritance she needs a man in the family to send a letter to the bank confirming she is responsible enough to manage the money.

So, it’s easy to understand why she is so frustrated throughout much of this book. However, if there were a downside, this would be it.

Clara spends an inordinate amount of time being angry at every perceived slight. But the thing is, she’s smart enough to know how the world works in 1929 so none of this should really be a surprise to her.

Annoying, yes, but not a surprise! Like Verity Bright’s A Very English Murder, I wish she had been a little bit savvier when it came to playing the game and, indeed, the men who seemed to want her to fail.

That said, now that she’s in Newcastle and she has the lay of the land a little bit more, I’m excited to know where she goes from here.

So I’ll be reading the next book in the series, The Pantomime Murders, very shortly, so I’ll let you know!

Until then, The Picture House Murders is a solid whodunit and one that gets the thumbs up for cozy mystery fans.