Starred review from March 13, 2023
Screenwriter Seales’s exceptional debut focuses on the Steele family of Swampshire, England, where women strictly adhere to a multiple-volume guide that offers rules including “Ladies must not be annoying or persistent.” It’s the early 19th century, and the Steeles have three daughters, the eldest of whom, 25-year-old Beatrice, harbors a frightful secret: she loves to solve crimes. None of the daughters can inherit the family’s estate—it can only go to a man—and Mr. Steele’s penchant for practical jokes has led his vile cousin, Martin Grub, to declare him insane, paving the way for Grub to take over the property. The family’s only hope rests on one of the daughters receiving a marriage proposal from a wealthy bachelor they meet at the annual Stabmort Park ball. After one of those bachelors dies during the festivities, Beatrice teams up with private detective Vivek Drake to solve the crime. The intricate plot races along at a sprightly pace, and Seales delights with her sharp humor and accomplished sense of narrative control. Jane Austen fans will be enthralled. Agent: Rachel Kim, 3 Arts Entertainment.
Starred review from May 1, 2023
A young woman of marriageable age and prospects moonlights as a detective in Seales' tongue-in-cheek Regency murder mystery. Beatrice Steele spends hours in her turret room, dreaming of solving dark and dire crimes like her favorite "gentleman detective," Sir Huxley. As the oldest daughter in a family of girls, she would usually be the one on whom all hopes were pinned to make a good match, but luckily, her sister Louisa is the beautiful one and, as such, may be the one to keep the family out of ruin. When they are invited to the annual autumn ball at Stabmort Park, home of the Ashbrooks--the oldest and wealthiest family in their corner of Swampshire--they have no idea that the storm that ushers them across the moors is also blowing together an unlikely cast of characters. By the end of the evening, secrets will have been revealed, false identities exposed, missing persons found, and murder committed (twice!). The character types are endearingly familiar to anyone who has ever read a Jane Austen novel, and the dialogue crackles with wit, outrage, subtext, and pluck. Beatrice, a true Sherlock Holmes within her restrictive social world, is a delight, and while the characters may be familiar, Seales' over-the-top caricatures succeed in being humorous rather than clich�. As Seales writes about the Regency period in a readers guide at the end of the book: "Women learned to interpret every look, every word, every tiny insight they observed. If they were so good at doing this in order to catch a husband...what if they turned these skills toward catching a killer?" The result is a deliciously dark delve into a world that seems genteel on the surface and teems with sex and violence and greed just underneath--not so unlike Austen's but with a morbid, rather than domestic, bent. Irreverent, satirical, and oh so much fun!
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
October 6, 2023
DEBUT The small community of Swampshire, England, is obsessed with perfect etiquette. While Beatrice Steele's mother and beautiful sister Louisa fit in perfectly, Mr. Steele and Beatrice aren't quite proper. After she reads a newspaper column about a dashing detective, Sir Huxley, and his disgraced partner, Vivek Drake, Beatrice becomes obsessed with reading about and solving murders. She knows she should be on her best behavior at the ball at Stabmort Park, but she fears she'll be bored, while Mrs. Steele hopes Louisa will catch the eye of a rich guest, Mr. Edmund Croaksworth. Instead, the man delights Beatrice by falling over dead during the ball. Now they're all trapped with Croaksworth's killer during a storm. Beatrice knows she can find the murderer, but she's forced to work with Croaksworth's surprising guest, the once-investigator Vivek. VERDICT Seales combines a Jane Austen cast and setting with an Agatha Christie--style mystery in a droll debut. It might appeal to Tamar Myers's fans, but readers of Austen and Christie may be disappointed with the novel's over-the-top humor.--Lesa Holstine
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.