Published 3rd April 2025 by Renegade Books.
From the cover of the book:
1922: You are cordially invited to summer at the Gatsby Mansion in West Egg, with the most illustrious - and the deadliest - guest list.Freshly twenty-one and sporting a daring new bob, Greta Gatsby - younger sister to the infamous Jay - is finally free of finishing school. An idyllic summer stretches ahead of her at the Gatsby Mansion, the jewel of West Egg.
But when Greta arrives at the secluded white-stone estate bathed in the late-afternoon light, she finds she isn't the only visitor. Jay is hosting an intimate gathering of New York's fashionable set: Daisy and Tom Buchanan, along with his brother Edgar, Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker.
That evening, the guests enjoy a candelabra-lit dinner party. That night, they dance to the lilt of the gramophone. The next morning, one of them is missing.
Murder has come to West Egg, the warm breeze tainted by scandal, betrayal and secrets. Turning sleuth isn't how Greta meant to spend her summer - but what choice does she have when one of them could be next?
*********
Finally free of the educational demands placed on her by her older brother Jay, twenty-one-year-old Greta Gatsby returns to the palatial Gatsby Mansion in West Egg. With a new, and very modern, haircut that she is sure her brother will disapprove of, she has plans to have an idyllic summer before deciding where her life goes from here.
When she arrives, she finds Jay in company with his usual set of friends drawn from New York high society - Daisy and Tom Buchanan, Tom's brother Edgar, Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker. she is less than pleased about some of these people being here when she was hoping for some rare time alone with her brother, but settles in to make the best of a glamourous evening of eating, drinking, and making merry to the sound of the latest gramophone tunes.
Inevitably, the night ends with drama brought on by too much alcohol, but no one expects one of their number to be missing when the morning comes. Tom Buchanan is found dead, with a gun shot to his head. Suicide seems the likely cause, but Greta is not so sure. Instead of leisurely pursuits, Greta is determined to get to the bottom of the death by emulating her favourite Agatha Christie detectives and turning sleuth.
In a delicious twist on one of my favourite classic tragedies, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Claire Anderson-Wheeler takes his unforgettable characters and shapes their story in a very entertaining Jazz Age, country house murder mystery.
The story unfurls through the eyes of Jay Gatsby's determined young sister Greta, who brings Enola Holmes energy to the piece by not taking the death of overbearing, and morally dubious Tom Buchanan at face value as a suicide. While plenty of drama takes place in the Gatsby household, in the wake of the death, rife with complicated tangle of grief-fuelled, guilt ridden, and recrimination rich emotions (with the added spice of a jewel robbery), Greta (an avid Agatha Christie fan) gets to work tracking down clues which might reveal a murderer amongst them - and her investigation takes the story to some surprising places.
There are lovely twists and turns, with plenty of Christie like misdirection, and Anderson-Wheeler pays homage to Fitzgerald's original by delving into the same themes of old vs new money, reputation, social mobility, and love. She also incorporates a host themes about the hopes, dreams, and freedoms of women in the 1920s by telling her story through the voice of Greta, especially around the social conscience she develops over the course of the book. There is a of thought-provoking hard-edge to the whole piece about the horrendous history of the American Protective League too, and the shocking misdeeds perpetrated in the name of enforcing patriotism and stifling dissent, which sent me down a lot of unsettling rabbit holes.
Inevitably, Anderson-Wheeler's characters differ from Fitzgerald's in a number of ways. Gatsby here is much more vulnerable than we have seen him before, and the self-absorbed Daisy actually redeems herself somewhat before the final page is turned. Jordan is much more likeable too. But the winners for me are Nick Carraway (as always), with his sense, bravery, and depth of feeling, and the eminently charming, plucky Greta. I also loved the way Anderson-Wheeler adds a bit of frisson through the gentle romantic tension she builds between Greta and Nick.
I thoroughly enjoyed this page-turning reimagining, and all its lush Jazz Age vibes. There is scope for a sequel too, which I would dearly love to read!
The Gatsby Gambit is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Renegade Books for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to FMcM Associates for inviting me to join this blog tour.
About the author:
Originally from Ireland, Claire currently lives with her husband in Providence, Rhode Island, where trips to the Gilded Age mansions of Newport keep her Gatsby daydreams alive!
