Marion Chesney has written many Regency romances but here she moves into the Edwardian era – perhaps a time with some similarities to the Regency. As M.C. Beaton she has produced detective fiction about two different series characters in the modern period.
The Edwardian decade is popular for historical mystery writers, the era is one of great upheaval and yet the upper class society behaves as though their world of privilege will never end. The reader is fascinated by the vagaries of life in the Edwardian country house with its rigid rules above and below stairs. In Snobbery with Violence Marion Chesney has a willful heroine – Lady Rose Summer – and a resourceful hero – Captain Harry Cathcart – who works as a private enquiry agent after embittering experiences in the Boer War. The two strike sparks off each other though not in a romantic sense since Harry has prevented Rose’s engagement and she resented this. Rose has to cope with the circumstances of a very difficult house party and her enmity with Harry contributes further to the situation.
Unappealing characters at the house party are a threat to the apparently innocent
debutantes and intrigue gets thicker and thicker. Some very neat details of
behaviour help to convey the hot-house atmosphere of this country house. Servants
are shown as real personalities involved in the machinations of the plot. This
tale is brought to a satisfactory conclusion but the book ends with the first
moves of what, I am sure, will be the sequel.
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Jennifer Palmer
Marion Chesney, as stated above, has written many historical romances and is
a pseudonym of M.C.Beaton, another prolific author. M.C. Beaton writes the Agatha
Raisin and Hamish Macbeth series.