Loved it! Just as clever as the first one! Poor Lady Rose & Captain Cathcart!

ROSE!!! CAN YOU PLEASE STOP BEING A DUM-DUM?!?! THANK YOU!!!!! -GISELLE

Was MC Beaton LGBTQIA or just a really good ally? Because even when our mains are at their most annoying I cant help but stan how far they go out of their way to ensure their gay friends and acquaintances don't get arrested for being gay. And then there is how all the shitty people being shitty to the gays get punished. And, and, the gays get a happily ever after! It makes me happy.

ROSE!!! CAN YOU PLEASE STOP BEING A DUM-DUM?!?! THANK YOU!!!!! -GISELLE

There's no nice way to say this.

I really disliked this book.

The writing was just terrible. Maybe it was too simple for me, but there was was absolutely no detail. The conversation was stiff and I found it hard to believe. Even for an Edwardian era novel, the conversation was dry. People were killed off and parties were attended all in one paragraph. I felt no sympathy for any of the characters.

Beautiful young woman just being introduced into society found bleeding in a boat? Meh.

Two men are killed in a car crash? Wait, where are we again?

Rose and Daisy are kidnapped? I really want this book to be over.

Maybe the writing style just wasn't suitable for me. I found this book boring to be frank, AND IT IS A MURDER MYSTERY.

I often see people calling characters one dimensional in reviews, and I always dismiss them as pretentious. In this case, I have never seen so many characters underdeveloped. The relationships were confusing, dialogue was dull. Rose was annoying, Daisy spoke in an unappealing manner and never had anything interesting to say other than speak about her love, Becket.

The whole "romance" between Rose and Harry was unbearable. Here is a brief summary:

Rose: Hey, I only like Harry 'cuz I don't want to go to India!
Harry: Out of the goodness of my heart, I stay with Rose.
Rose: This engagement is in name only! (insert paragraph about her feelings for him)
Harry: She is as cold as ice (insert paragraph about how he finds her aggravating but alluring)
Rose: I want to help solve a murder!
Harry: Rose, you will embarrass me *insert sexist comment here*
Rose: *angry because Harry doesn't show up at a social function* (x12)
Rose: Breaks off engagement
Harry and Rose: Dang it, we actually like each other!
Rose: Friends again?

Repeat 2 times to get the general plot of the story.


Also, as much as I love interesting historical facts, I was confused to know why I was reading quotes about George Pullman and his funeral arrangements while in the middle of a scene where the main character is travelling. This random factoid was interesting, but what the heck was it doing in the middle of the scene? I got a "hey look I did my research I'll prove it look" vibe.

Grammatical inconsistencies were annoying. A character is referred to as "Mrs. Losse"in one chapter and "Mrs. Josse" in the next. There was also a comment about "his pore sister". Is the misspelled name just there to prove that Harry didn't know that girl? Is "pore" some phrase I haven't heard of? Either way, it was distracting.


I try really hard not to bash writers as I know how much work goes in to writing a novel, and I respect anyone who has a love for it, but man, I really didn't like this book.

I thought I needed another talking book to carry me over my travels, so I grabbed this one off the library shelf. It is the third in the series, as usual I don't manage to begin at the beginning. Not having read the first two were not a hardship - it was easy to catch up.

I found the characters, setting and time period to be interesting and well portrayed. I wasn't sure I was going to care about Lady Rose and Captain Cathcart, but I was wrong. Chesney made the whole book a good read. The best part for me was that the Edwardian period was a time of major change in Great Britain and Chesney educated me on all of that. There wasn't much mystery, but I didn't mind.

All in all, a good read. I would recommend this to cozy mystery readers; to people with some interest in British historical fiction, especially if they want to know about Edwardian England.

Was MC Beaton LGBTQIA or just a really good ally? Because even when our mains are at their most annoying I cant help but stan how far they go out of their way to ensure their gay friends and acquaintances don't get arrested for being gay. And then there is how all the shitty people being shitty to the gays get punished. And, and, the gays get a happily ever after! It makes me happy.

Actual rating: 3.75 stars.

I've decided for this short series of books to review them as a whole. I read them one after the other in about a 24 hour time period, so they all sort of seem like one really long book to me, and I am not at all sure that I could review them separately.

My plan is to copy and past the review to each of the four books, so I will post most all of the review under a spoiler cut, because I am sure that I will mention things that would be considered spoilerish.

My overall rating for the series is 3.75 stars...ok, actually it was 3.63, but I rounded it up.

The books are all light, breezy, and very quick reads--all of them clocking in at just under 225 pages.

I enjoyed the books as a whole, the characters (while sometimes extremely frustrating to me) were engaging, the writing style was pleasing, and while the books were mostly lighthearted and amusing, there were a few tense moments as well. The mysteries were pretty easy to figure out, and therefore didn't require much thought...which is something that I sometimes look for in a book.

I think the thing that frustrated me the most was the back and forth between Lady Rose and Captain Harry. They both loved each other, but neither could admit it to themselves, much less the other. The on again/off again engagement of convenience between the two grew very tedious very quickly as did the 'I love you but am to scared to show it so I act as if I hate you' trope that the author employed througout the series to create conflict between the two. One would see or hear something about the other that they'd misunderstand and then go off in a snit until they found out they were wrong. I could see that happening in the first book since they didn't know each other that well, but by the time the fourth book rolled around there really should have been some other means of conflict between the two or just have them get together and acknowledge their feelings for each other . I don't know...maybe it wouldn't have bothered me so badly if I hadn't read all four of them so quickly.

I liked both Harry and Rose, though both--at times--made me wish I could shake them, for the reasons mentioned above as well as for other things. Though both did show some emotional growth and maturity during the series...Rose especially.

I liked the secondary storyline between Harry's manservant, Becket, and Rose's lady's maid/later companion, Daisy.

Two characters I could hardly find any redeeming qualities in at all were Rose's parents. OH MY WORD what an insufferable pair they were!

I've read that the author isn't planning on writing anymore books in this series, preferring instead to concentrate on her two other series, so I'm glad that this one ended the way it did. The implied happy ending is there, but it is also open ended enough to pick the series back up should the author ever change her mind.

Thoroughly enjoyed this third book in the series. The will they/won't they theme continues with an excellent storyline and adventure. Good stuff.