“Tell me the man with who you go,” Amelia said.
“A man from L.A.”
James Stewart, Mystery at the Blue Sea Cottage
Title: Mystery at the Blue Sea Cottage: A True Story of Murder in San Diego’s Jazz Age
Author: James Stewart
Genres: Non-fiction, True Crime
Pages: 347 (Kindle)
Published: October 5th, 2021
My Rating: ★★★ ½
Read: 6/2/2022 – 6/5/2022
Review:
A roaring 20s true crime story? I was immediately intrigued! I feel like I’ve heard about Fritzie Mann somewhere before, but I could be confusing her story with someone else’s.
First off, I have to say kudos to James Stewart and his dedication to the research. He took a good look at every angle of the puzzle, putting them together and speculating what might have happened. The pictures were also a great addition. As for the writing, it dragged in places for me and I didn’t feel my interest consistently held, but there were some interesting bits that made up for the others. Overall, a good true crime read, especially if you like the pre-forensic era and speculation.
Thanks to BookSirens for providing a free review copy. I am leaving my thoughts voluntarily.
Afterthoughts:
A lot of time when I read non-fiction books (especially true crime) I Google the subjects out of further curiosity. I was surprised how little there is out there about Fritzie Mann. Most of what I saw at a quick glance were newspaper archives. This made me appreciate the research that went into this book even more. I believe it was nearly a decade.