Death on a Silver Tray: A Beau Brummell Mystery (Beau Brummell Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Rosemary Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Series: Beau Brummell Mysteries | Publication Date: May 1, 2000

In this "delightful debut mystery,"* London society's Beau Brummell proves that murder is never in style...

In the days of Regency England, Beau Brummell stood as the uncrowned king of genteel society. The quintessential style-maker, trend-setter, and fashion-forger, Brummell was the last person one would expect to find in the middle of a murder mystery. But then, Beau Brummell was never one to do what was expected...

When the Duchess of York begs for his help, Beau Brummell wouldn't think of refusing. The Countess of Wrayburn has been poisoned, and her paid companion is the prime suspect. Unfortunately, the Duchess is the one who arranged the young woman's employment with the late Countess, and the scandal could ruin the Duchess' good name.

Brummell does some inquiring of his own, and soon realizes that more than one person had motive to kill Lady Wrayburn. And he is going to find out who they are. Because if there's one thing that's never in style, it's murder...

"Beau Brummell...proves as adept at sniffing out a murderer as he is at squashing the socially pretentious in Rosemary Stevens' delightful debut mystery. A charmer from first page to last." --Dean James

"Ms. Stevens has deftly captured the tone and spirit of the times, vividly providing her readers with the details, sights, smells and customs of a bygone era, when detective work was still in its infancy, and a gentleman could be snubbed for an improperly tied neckcloth as well as for murder. Real historical characters mix easily with fictional ones with a sure and clever touch." --Mystery Books, Washington, D.C.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

George Bryan "Beau" Brummell, the arbiter of fashion in Regency England, may seem an unlikely protagonist for a crime novel, but Stevens, author of four Regency romances, brings off this debut mystery with great ?lan. The night after the dowager Countess Wrayburn makes an unpleasant scene at an art exhibition, the old harridan is found dead in her bed, helped on her way with a little poison added to her evening glass of milk. The police office in Bow Street immediately suspects her paid companion, Miss Rebecca Ashton, whom the countess hired at the urging of the Duchess of York. Before Miss Ashton is arrested, the duchess asks Beau to help clear the young woman's name. The duchess's reputation, as well as Miss Ashton's life, is at stake. How can a gentleman refuse? Indeed, after his initial investigations, Brummell's own reputation is at risk. Beau Brummell often appears in Regencies as a two-dimensional figure, but here he has real character, intelligence and wit. Stevens includes a delightful group of secondary characters, some fictional, some not. With an excellent ear for the language of the time, she captures the spirit (and some of the smells) of Regency London. Cat fans will appreciate her theory on the introduction of an exotic feline strain into England. Readers of both historical mysteries and Regency romances will eagerly await sequels. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Appealed to by his friend Frederica, the duchess of York, Regency dandy Beau Brummell investigates the murder of a hateful and vicious dowager countess. Although without aristocratic lineage or fortune, Brummell holds a certain place in "society"--achieved with charisma and the friendship of the Prince of Wales--that allows him access to the clues he needs. Though immodest, manipulative, and able to circumvent the propriety he so keenly espouses, Brummell succeeds as a sleuth. A light, exciting 1805 England is re-created with expertise, stylish prose, and dry humor. For most collection.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1st edition (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425174689
• ISBN-13: 978-0425174685
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mystery with Appeal/ An Investigator with Class, May 22, 2000

By 

Judith A. Lansdowne (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death on a Silver Tray: A Beau Brummell Mystery (Beau Brummell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Tired of the same old thing? Looking for an investigator you can't get enough of, a scintillating plot and incredible atmosphere? Pick up this book. It's got it all.

I admit I've become jaded with conventional mysteries. Puzzling out the answer isn't enough. I've longed for a really good book set in an interesting time period-- one I can just sit back and immerse myself in without looking at the clock every fifteen minutes and wondering if the author will ever get around to actually having something happen. Well, folks, this is the book. Stevens' portrayal of Beau Brummell as Regency Detective is magnificent. Her presentation of the time in which he lived deftly and accurately done. And there's not one character in here that you don't come to know intimately. No cardboard cutouts for Ms. Stevens. Not a one! I will admit that I solved the mystery-- but only at the exact same time that Brummell did. A terrific read. I'm in love Beau, the incomparable, Brummell just as I always have been with Sherlock, the audacious, Holmes. Three cheers, Ms. Stevens! You've made my day.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best-dressed sleuth in any historical mystery series!, June 3, 2000

By 

Jo Manning (Miami Beach, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Death on a Silver Tray: A Beau Brummell Mystery (Beau Brummell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

And the cleverest! Rosemary Stevens has gotten Beau Brummell's "voice" down beautifully---just as I'd imagined he would sound and just as I'd imagined he would behave. The Beau, arbiter of Regency fashion and things social, admirer of beauty in all forms (from women to Sevres porcelain), is drawn into a murder investigation by his dear, treasured friend Freddie, the Duchess of York. He comes through admirably, and the identity of the murderer is a real surprise, nicely done. Stevens has other good characters with Robinson, Brummell's valet, his crony Petersham, and the Lavenders, father and daughter, respectively a Bow Street investigator and the founder of a home for fallen women. And Chakkri, the Siamese cat, is beyond description: the feline equivalent of George Bryan "Beau" Brummell. A delicious book! I will be looking forward eagerly for the next installment. Fans of the Jane Austen mysteries will, I predict, flock to this new Regency sleuth. Brummell as detective is just a fabulous idea.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hang it all, it's too cute not to LOVE . . ., March 10, 2001

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death on a Silver Tray: A Beau Brummell Mystery (Beau Brummell Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Look, if I can love this blasted little romp, ANYONE cat, er, can. And I'm not a cat person, but that's beside the point . . .

DEATH ON A SILVER TRAY is written in the First Person. You need to appreciate that because it extracts a certain effect which works irritatingly well (or did on me) in spite of the fact that I generally detest the presence of the writer inserting himself into my story, and am even less inspired to become engaged in a murder plot that can't even take itself seriously. But I think the narrative voice chosen (supported in no small measure by an imperiously ambivalent Siamese cat) is, ironically, what makes the book work so well. Chagrined as I am to say this, one sits down to this book examining a plate of chocolate sweets. And discovers only after the fact that they have just consumed an excellent, satisfying meal that will stay with them. The vanity of the narrator is so ubiquitous that the pace of the story rushes behind like an excitable hairstylist with a pair of scissors. Brummel's vanity knows no shame! and the effrontery of his appealing to your sympathies in the First Person is riotously funny. You'll discover yourself bonding with Brummel even as you hate yourself for doing it. Even the cat is lifelike and soft. You'll . . . you'll want one dammit.

There is the deceased, of course. Something of an afterthought squeezed between the latest fashionable sedan wood and, er, cat dander. I laughed so hard at choice points throughout this book I found myself turning to the back sleeve incredulously, wondering how the author could have earned my respect in spite of myself. I found myself saying, "This confounded, damnable little book . . . why can't I put it down? It's useless. I can't even take it seriously."

And that, dear friends, is precisely the point. Read this book when you've been sad. Let the book make you laugh. And with any luck you'll be laughing at yourself in the end. There's a bit of Brummel in all of us, hang it all.

Skye