Book 5 Snobbery with Violence

 

Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney, aka MC Beaton, fulfilled the category “Favorite Past Prompt” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. As always, I chose Audiobook. I listened to the title on Audible because it was free with my gold membership, as are many of MC Beaton/Marion Chesney’s books.

The novel is subtitled an Edwardian Mystery. The Edwardian period spans 1901 to 1910 and followed the Victorian period. I mention this as I had to keep remembering as I read the book that we were not in Jane Austen times but wholly in another century. The mentions of the suffragette movement should have nudged my brain that we were more Downton Abbey than Pemberley.

The book was written in 1971, so it’s older than me. I read about halfway through the novel when I stopped and looked up the information. One listing said it was pubbed in 2003, and another said 2008. Google to the rescue because no way was this book written after all the Agatha Raisin books. The mystery was not very complex, and the characters were scattered. The detective work, even given the era, was disjointed. Yep, an early book and she got so much better.

I chose the book because of the author, the title, and the time period. I do like a historical romance, but this was a nice, light twist. Many historicals are lengthy. Lately, I’m just not focused enough for a long book. Maybe it’s the months and months of being stuck in the house or the recent closure of my workplace. Either way, I have a short attention span.

My lack of focus may be the reason I didn’t love-love the book. (Or it was the fact it was older, less well-written, and of a time period I’m not familiar with.) I was confused about the societal conventions of England at the turn of the century. With motor cars and fingerprints in the background, I assumed young ladies had more freedom. According to the book, I guessed incorrectly. Again, I used my considerable Downton Abbey knowledge to confirm that yes, women were still in need of chaperones, had lady’s maids, and needed to comply with class rules. Though the main character seemed to take it on the fly, using her lady’s maid (a former show girl) as a chaperone. Would an Earl worried about his daughter’s reputation allow that? Probably not.

The book was whimsical, fun, and cute. Not high literature, but in essence, it’s a romance with a bit of a cozy mystery wrapped inside.

I give Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney Four Doses of Arsenic, because why not?