Snobbery With Violence is the first of four Edwardian mysteries by M.C. Beaton. I saw the full set of trade paperbacks, was intrigued, and gave them a try.
Publisher's Weekly calls them "A sparkling Edwardian series (with) aristocrats, house parities, servants, and murder."
I thought Murder at Downton Abbey, which was pretty accurate.
Tall and handsome Captain Harry Cathcart has returned from the Boer war and is tired of hanging about his Club. He is offered several odd jobs and gets a reputation for ferreting out troubled situations as a private investigator.
Lady Rose Summer is being presented to society by her parents, the Earl and Lady Hadshire, without any luck. If a girl does not find a man of quality to marry during the season, she might as well be sent off to find a military man in India. Rose is not making herself available, snubbing many men and getting a bad reputation for attending Suffragette rallies. When Mr. Blandon takes an interest, Cathcart is asked to check out his background, and finds him a cad with a bet going he could bed the 'man-hating' Rose. Exposing this plot publicly only taints her own reputation, while the man remains unsullied.
Next season, she is invited with several other single ladies to Telby Castle, the ostentatious country home of the Marquess of Hedley. She is accompanied by her new ladies' maid Daisy, a young girl formerly of the theatre, who befriends Rose and helps her to become independent. While the dinners are boring and the entertainment sparse, things pick up when a guest is poisoned and her maid disappears. Rose and Daisy begin detecting, and then work with Harry Cathcart and the police to discover the murderer. Having access to the family and higher society, Rose can get information the stuffy upper class will not deem to share with the middle or lower classes.
Cathcart is wily and intelligent, Lady Rose is young and adventurous ~ Along with Daisy and his man Becket, they make an interesting team. This series is written in a light breezy style without downtime. Things move very quickly, but it's a fun ride.
As with the next in the series, it's top heavy with manners and customs. Lady Rose is expected to change up to six times a day, sit a certain way at tea - of course, never sitting down until the seat is cooled from a gentleman's bottom. Wearing gloves at tea is a must, which prohibits eating the profusion of sandwiches and deserts offered, lest she stain them with butter. These manners of class and society make for an interesting framework as there are certain things each one of them can or cannot perform. They need information from all the levels of the household, from each class of society to form the complete story.
This review is more about the style of the novel and less about the murder - as it seems inconsequential. This is not a true who-done-it where you puzzle over who is a villain, it's more enjoyable to prowl about with the characters - even knowing that Cathcart and Rose, who loathe each other, are destined to be together. But you'll have to wait out three more novels for that!
M.C. Beaton is Marion Chesney, prolific author of over 100 novels. Her two series, the Agatha Raisin and the Hamish Macbeth mysteries, are very popular and she has written many historical romance novels under different pseudonyms.
If you like Downton Abbey and feel like a light trip to Tenby Castle with high society, read on.
I thought they were entertaining enough.
2003 / Tradeback / 226 pages
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