Monday, December 10, 2012

Review - Sick of Shadows

Title: Sick of Shadows
Author: Marion Chesney
Publisher: Minotaur Books (March 24, 2005)
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 224
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: Library
Series: Edwardian Murder Mystery #3

It never ceases to amaze me how I can love one series from a writer but not connect with other books that are written by the same person. For instance, Marion Chesney is also MC Beaton. I love the Agatha Raisin books, but there is something about the Edwardian Mystery series that does not work for me.

Maybe it is something as simple as the fact that I do not like Lady Rose Summers. In the first book, Snobbery with Violence, there was a spark there that I liked, but as the series continued on, I lost interest in this woman and her silly goings on. Rose is still playing her games with Captain Harry Cathcart and the two have entered into an engagement of convenience. Meaning that she has told her parents that they are engaged only so they will not send her off to India.

Being a failed debutant due to her intellect and unconventional ideas, Rose has to figure out this marriage thing – something that will give her a home of her own, but at the same time, not force her to be tied down with a husband and children. There is something about Captain Harry Cathcart, who has been around since book one, but since her family does not want their only child marrying a man in trade, other pickings are slim for Lady Rose.

Rose is helping the beautiful Dolly Tremain in her very first debutant season. These are very treacherous waters for a young woman and when Rose sees Dolly about to make a horrible mistake she rushes to her aid only to discover that someone had murdered her and her body has been laid out to look like the Lady of Shallot.

Soon Lady Rose’s life too is in danger and with the help of Harry and a small group of friends, the duo ferrets out the goings on of the rich and famous and those that will do anything they can to be a part of that world.

I have tried my best with this series, but just do not think that I can force myself to read the final book. I wish Captain Cathcart and Lady Rose Summer my best, but they will have to get along without me.

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