Hasty Death: An Edwardian Murder Mystery (Edwardian Murder Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Marion Chesney (Author) "Winter is very democratic..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lady Rose, Miss Jubbles, Lord Alfred (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Lady Rose Summer, the willful, spoiled and charming heroine of British veteran Chesney's light historical series that began with 2003's Snobbery with Violence, decides to break the class barriers and go out into the working world with her maid Daisy. Their adventures include a kidnapping, narrow escapes, a daring rescue and of course murder. After returning to the comforts of her London home, Lady Rose turns to dashing Captain Harry Cathcart, a Boer War veteran turned detective, for aid in solving the murder. Once again Chesney has concocted an amusing brew of mystery and romance that will keep her fans turning the pages.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"Chesney maintains her charm and sassiness" Kirkus Reviews "Fans of the author's Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series... will welcome this new series of historical whodunnits" Booklist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312936168
• ISBN-13: 978-0312936167
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #2 in

  Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Chesney, Marion

• This is item 2 in The Edwardian Murder Mystery Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing period piece, May 13, 2005

By	M. C. Crammer (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This mystery is part of a historical (Edwardian) series written by M.C. Beaton using a pen-name Marion Chesney. M.C. Beaton is a real favorite of mine (known for the Hamesh Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series), so I picked up this book with high expectations.

I have mixed feelings about the book. It's amusing and reasonably accurate historically, although it's not meant to be a very serious attempt to do either a mystery (the plotting isn't that strong) or period piece (the characters are very atypical for the time, as the author points out). My interest in the book was strong at first but by the last 50 pages, far from being desperate to find out "who done it", my interest was waning and I was counting how many pages I had left.

The characters are amusing and likeable (the ones that ought to be, at least -- the unlikeable ones are sufficiently villainous in a light-hearted way). The heroine Rose (an upper class young woman is driving her parents crazy with her desire to be a modern young woman -- for a while she was supporting the suffragettes and now she wants a JOB). The romantic interest is Harry, an upper class young man who is WORKING as a private detective -- which has made many of the upper class look down on him as being in trade. At the beginning of the book, a young man (from the upper crust) is found dead, and these two independently (and subsequently sometimes together) investigate his death. There's a class-conscious police detective who is longing to man the barricades when the revolution happens, a cockney maid (who is somewhat unbelievably transformed into Rose's companion), a manservant, and a variety of aristocratic characters. There's a country house party and a wicked doctor and various other characters, all drawn broadly enough you have no trouble remembering who is who.

Parts of the book are laugh out loud funny. I only wish Ms. Chesney had concentrated more on plotting.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, December 31, 2005

By	Gayle Greene (CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"Hasty Death" is the third installment in this Edwardian series, and even though I vastly prefer Chesney's Regency novels, these are beginning to grow on me a bit. The characterizations are highly amusing, and the relationship between Rose and Cathcart is moving along nicely; they even become engaged, though it is a sham engagement. And no, the situation is not resolved at the end of the book . . . which brings me to one of the major irritations about this mystery/romance series: though the murder mystery is resolved at the end of each book, the romantic relationship is not, which I find very unsatisfying. In Chesney's previous books, they all contained an entertaining cast of characters and each one became the focus of successive novels. Not so, here; we are supposed to be engaged by a not-very-intriguing mystery and remember where these characters are in their development when the next installment comes out in a year or two, and while these characters are mildly interesting, they aren't that memorable, nor are they worth rereading the previous novels.

Nevertheless, Chesney is a very good writer, and this is a nice way to while away an afternoon.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars charming old world mystery, July 20, 2004

By	Mehendi Das "boierpoka (bookworm!)" (Moved to India) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Hasty Death: An Edwardian Murder Mystery (Edwardian Murder Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This book brings back memories of Agatha Christie?s writings, with the superb combination of wit , charm and intellect in the creation of murder mysteries. The author expertly intersperses the darkness of human activities such as murders and blackmailing, with wry humour and indications of romance between the adversarial protagonists of the story. This will be a very entertaining read that takes you back to the early decades of the twentieth century. The author is also competent in conveying the historical setting of the novel, with witty observations on the beginnings, of the rumblings of change in the social structure of British high society.
I would also suggest other books written by the author under the penname M.C. Beaton, the Agatha Raisin series of mysteries, which I have also enjoyed tremendously.