Customer Reviews

Invitation To A Funeral

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While the Restoration London of 1676 is full of paranoia about French, Dutch and Catholic spies infiltrating Whitehall, the heroine of Molly Brown's "Invitation to a Funeral" seems far away from all that.

When first we meet Aphra Behn, she is waking with her head aching and mouth dry from a night's revelry. The playwright is broke after her last play flopped, and her new play must run at least three days for her to make any money on it. To make matters worse, the Earl of Rochester managed to cast his mistress in the lead, despite her obvious lack of talent, as part of a bet that Aphra can turn her into London's best actress.

When a man who befriended her many years ago is found dead, she arranges for his funeral to repay an old debt. But her innocent act has drawn the attention of some mysterious figures, including the head of the king's secret service.

"Invitation to a Funeral" is full of Restoration figures, noble and common: King Charles II, his competing mistresses such as the actress Nell Gwyn and the Duchess of Portsmouth (nicknamed "Squintabella" by Nell), and the carousing Earl of Rochester. Those who know the era will recognize some of the incidents Brown uses for her own devices.

Aphra Behn stands out among the general run of amateur detectives for her refusal to act like one. She is not Jessica Fletcher teleported to the 17th century, just a single working girl trying to keep body and soul together while working in a profession which most people of the time considered one step removed from prostitution. What with shepherding her play to the stage, dealing with Rochester's mistress, running deeper into debt and avoiding her debtors (as well as an ex-lover attempting to win her back), she doesn't have time to play detective. How she manages to get into serious trouble anyway makes "Invitation to a Funeral" a pleasurable jaunt back to another historical era.

What makes this Historical Mystery story such a great read is the careful deliniation of characters as well as the absolutely accurate feel to the setting in time and place, in all it's splendor and squalor. It reminds me of the Brother Cadfael series in that respect. Aphra Behn, real life former spy turned playwright, is a pefect choice for a heroine. Also, 17th centruy England was full of enough intrigue to funish the plots to several books, which is a fervent hope of this reader and not a criticism. My only quibble with the book, and it is a minor one, is that it seemed a little thin in some places and that the ending was a little abrupt, (except that it is a perfect set up for a sequel). This is not to say that the book is dissappointing, just that the world Molly Brown brought to life was so compelling, that I wanted to spend more time in it.

Invitation To A Funeral is one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a long time. It's fast-moving and funny, with as lively and witty a group of characters as any reader could wish for. But fun as it is, there is a much harder edge to this book than you find in the traditional historical cozy. The book is not as light as it appears at first glance; there is an element of gritty realism here, that to my mind, makes the book as a whole a much more satisfying experience. All in all, I recommend Invitation To A Funeral to anyone who is interested in a rollicking read with wonderful characterization and a great sense of fun. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

Molly Brown writes well in whatever genre she turns her hand to. Here she brilliantly captures the sparkle and coarseness of Restoration England in an engaging page-turner of a book. Nell and Aphra are delightful heroines, & the cameos by various historic characters are much fun.

The choice of Aphra Behn as protagonist in this 17th century mystery was intriguing. A classic unconventional, independent, rebellious historical figure augured well for a new detective. Unfortunately neither the character of the protagonist nor those of the million or so other characters are drawn well enough for the reader to care the least bit about what happened to them. Well-known Londoners of the time, Samual Pepys for instance, are dragged in to a quick sketch, then left.

The plot is contrived, but by the time I came to the denoument I no longer cared. And this is all too bad because the writer has a nice wit and a good turn of phrase. I'd like to see this writer try something a little less ambitious.

Aphra is an alluring, intelligent woman who writes plays and dabbles in the the social scene that swirls around the court of King Charles II. She seems to know everyone, and still remains impoverished though she works very hard. When two former acquaintances, who happen to be brothers, reappear in her life only to turn up dead the next day, Aphra is compelled to see that they get justice. This promising plot fails, mainly because the characters come across as cliches and most of the "action" consists of inane conversations of the "O whatever shall I do" order. The King's infamous mistresses flounce around being alternately catty or despairing of his "love", and Nell Gwyn actually wades into Aphra's investigation.

Silly and vacuous. The historical Aphra Behn, who was the first woman in England to support herself by writing, deserves better.

The year is 1676, and playwright Aphra Behn is one success away from paying off her debts when her friend, the Earl of Rochester, insists that she cast his mistress, Elizabeth, to play the lead in her latest play. If Elizabeth becomes the best actress in London, Rochester will win a bet with the Duke of Buckingham and split half of the money with Aphra. Unfortunately, Elizabeth has absolutely zero acting ability.

To help Elizabeth become a decent actress, Aphra decides to enlist the help of a friend, Nell Gwyn, former actress and orange-seller who is one of King Charles' mistresses. On the way to find Gwyn, they meet Elias Cavell, a beggar who knew Aphra when she was a young woman and who, along with his brother Matthew, performed a great kindness for her in Surinam. Upon going to visit Matthew, she finds him dead, and offers to repay his generosity by funding his funeral.

It's at the funeral that strange things start happening. Aphra is drugged, and her home is repeatedly broken into. There seem to be many people at the palace who are interested in Matthew Cavell, though what they could want with a former sailor is unknown. Who wants to do harm to Aphra? What does the court have to do with it? And what secret information about his brother did Elias Cavell possess that caused him to be murdered in Aphra's outhouse?

"Invitation to a Funeral" is the debut novel from Molly Brown, and while the cover touts it as one of the best historical novels of the year, it utterly fails to deliver. Several characters are delightful (Nell Gwyn is hilarious, as is her cantankerous mother) but others are not fleshed out. The plot is very convoluted and there are entirely too many players for a book that clocks in at less than 300 pages. The premise is intriguing, but it falls short in nearly every way.

Funerals fill Aphra Behn's life. First, she and her friend Nell Gywn, the celebrated actress and mistress of the Charles II, arrange the burial of two murdered brothers. Then, Nell holds a mock funeral as a jest to the falling court position of her rival, Louise de Keroualle. The murdered brothers, both known to Aphra in her earlier life, may been involved in plots against the king. With fears of a return of the "papist" Catholics to power, and thus a guaranteed resumption of civil war, Aphra must distance herself from her old friends while uncovering the source of their deaths.

A multitude of historic characters find their way into this story, which jumps around quite a bit. Background information by the author would have been very useful. Aphra Behn (1640-1690) was the first woman to make her living as a writer, in this story as a playwright. Because of her novel status, she was, as the book's dialogue correctly notes, the "scandal of London," considered an "immodest and immoral" person. Nell Gywn, who assumes an almost equal role to Behn in driving the plot, was celebrated for her superb performances and rise from bawdy houses to the king's bed. With the reopening of the theaters in Restoration England in 1660, both women could thrive.

Brown's story works as a slightly bawdy romp in the style of the plot of Behn's plays. But Behn is never shown actually writing, nor even thinking about the themes which inspired her. Rather, Brown uses her as a colorful character racing about London trying to solve this mystery while trying to piece together enough funds to keep herself from the horrors of debtors prison, where Behn indeed spent some time. The story does reveal the misfortunes of Behn's life, the tenuous position of unmarried women, the grasping for position among women at the permissive Restoration court, and, above all, the eye watering stench of unsanitary lower class London.

If you are a fan of BBC America or PBS you will enjoy this mystery set in 1700 England. It gives you a look into court intrigue through the unconventional female leads. I found the characters charming and the plot, although a bit predicatable, enjoyable. If you like a good mystery and you read carefully the end is no surprise, well not completely!