People get the oddest tattoos.
Murder at the Embassy (2025) is the second in the Miranda Green murder mystery series, the first being Invitation to a Murder (2023). This time, Green is becoming known for her success as a private detective, a mixed blessing as she’s British and this is the 1930s. The private secretary to the British ambassador to Egypt has been found shot to death in the embassy, and as Green happens to be in Egypt, but not at the embassy, the ambassador calls her in.
It’s the classic setup: variously annoying characters, from the Egyptian chief of security to an American actress whose connection to reality is skewed, all pointing at each other. Green and her mildly autistic nature encounters patriarchal attitudes, Nazis, unprincipled cads, barely sketched in interlopers, and an odd lesbian.
That last leaves a trail to the biggest question here, and that is Why? for so much of this story. Fine, we have a lesbian. This attribute doesn’t repel (nor attract) Green or anyone else, nor do anything else to advance the plot or even add to the ambiance. Midway through this story I found myself thinking two or three more drafts of the script could have made for a tighter, more satisfying story. Or, what is the point of the American actress? We kept hoping she’d be the murder victim, but no such luck.
But let’s not leave on a sour note. The lead is a charmer without knowing it, and that almost doubles the charm as she charges through social convention, leaving apologies scattered in her wake even as the murder victim looks more and more like a Nazi. Two characters who start out with a classic spitting nails at each other relationship, and who I was convinced wouldn’t change, ended up building some chemistry in quite a natural way that enhanced the story. And the sets or CGI or on location is gorgeous – if too clean, as my Arts Editor pointed out.
If there’s a third installment, will I watch it? Probably. Will I expect great things?
No. The scripts are too lazy.
