Snobbery With Violence by Marion Chesney

[meganbmoore]

When she went to London for her Season, Lady Rose Summer focused on finding herself a husband with intelligence, not money, alienating most of Society and earning herself a reputation as a walking encyclopaedia as a result. What suitors that didn’t scare off reconsidered when she was discovered to be a supporter of the suffragette movement. It’s only natural, then, that when a suitor, Gerald Blandon, does appear that her father be suspicious and act on the recommendation of a friend to ask Captain Harry Cathcart, a veteran of the Boer War, to look into things.

Naturally, Blandon is discovered to not have honorable intentions, and when she attempts to expose him in public, Rose ends up ruining her own reputation and is packed off to the country. In contrast, Cathcart earns a reputation for discrete inquiries and “fixing” problems for the upper classes, and has soon set himself up a tidy little business. Some time later, a young woman is found dead of arsenic poisoning at a house party Rose is attending, and the host, worried about a scandal, hires Cathcart to come and investigate.

I remember trying a few of Chesney’s Regencies when I was on a Regency kick several years ago, but having problems getting into them because she didn’t seem to like her characters very much. Reading this, I get a bit of the same feeling, but not nearly as strong. Both Rose and Cathcart both have some irritating traits, but the attitudes behind them are fitting for the period. Cathcart’s manservant, Becket (a strange man Cathcart saved from the streets) and Rose’s maid, Daisy (a former chorus girl) are the only characters Chesney really seems to like a lot. Still, the book is a pretty enjoyable English Manor House mystery, and well done and characterized. I’m not sure I’m interested in Chesney’s other books (but open to suggestions) but will read the rest of the series. 

Comments

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, Marion Chesney... Some of her stuff isn't bad, some of it... Well. I think you might be right about her disliking her characters. Perhaps she dislikes the conventions of regency novels?

She is, annoyingly, sometimes brilliant, but often just annoying and predictable.

All of which is to say if I could remember her regencies, I'd rec the ones I've liked, and I tried reading Snobbery With Violence once and gave up as it's very similar to them.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I admit, I may have "set it aside for later" after the first chapter or two, but my interest in the period(it always interests me, though) is a little higher than usual ATM.

I think she likes the periods, but kind of hates the upper classes in them.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

iirc, though, the one she did with a maid and a... less-than-pedigreed gentleman was just as derisive towards the characters. (Duke's Diamond, maybe? hrm)