Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 9780593449981

A young woman attending the event of the season gets a major shock when someone is murdered. As the weather threatens anyone who leaves, the woman and the other guests will have to wait to get help knowing a murderer waits with them. Julia Seales hits the perfect pitch between satire and historical fiction in her debut novel A Most Agreeable Murder.

In Victorian England in the village of Swamsphire, Beatrice Steele struggles to fit in. She knows all the attributes she should have to be considered a well-bred young woman—they’re all outlined in The Lady’s Guide to Swampshire, Volumes I and II, written by Baron Ashbrook, the town’s founder—but Beatrice just doesn’t have these traits. Instead, she has a dark secret: she’s been reading the true crime column in the newspaper, following the cases of Detective Sir Huxley.

Beatrice’s mother, Susan, thinks her daughter is pining after a beau, which is all well and good. After all, marrying off her daughters to wealthy gentlemen is Susan’s only goal. She knows she’ll have no trouble with her middle daughter, Louisa, the beauty of the family. Beatrice is also taken care of; she’s been close friends with Daniel Ashbrook, part of the Ashbrook founding family, and Susan expects a proposal any day now. As for youngest daughter Mary, well, as long as the other two can get sorted, something will work out for her.

Susan’s hopes are running high for the upcoming annual Autumnal Ball being thrown by the Ashbrooks. It’s the biggest event of the year where Daniel’s sister, Arabella, plays hostess and announces the color of the season and then premieres a new gown in that color halfway through the social event. Definitely the highlight for everyone living in Swampshire. 

Except this year, things seem a little muddy and that’s not because of the swampy marsh in the area. The wealthy Edmund Croaksworth is set to visit Swampshire, and Susan is determined that Louisa find herself engaged to him by the end of the evening. Word is also afoot that Edmund is bringing with him a guest, and everyone is curious to know who he is.

Beatrice couldn’t bother about special guests or anyone else. While she’s looking forward to seeing Daniel, she’d much rather spend the evening reading more of Sir Huxley’s crime columns. Beatrice has been keeping up with the gossip from London about the famous detective firing his assistant, Vivek Drake. Beatrice is glad to see him go. It’s clear from the columns that Inspector Drake added nothing to Sir Huxley’s fine work.

She’s utterly dismayed, then, to discover that Edmund Croaksworth’s guest at the ball is none other than Inspector Drake himself. What’s more, halfway through the evening one of the other guests is murdered. With howling winds and hail, everyone agrees they have to wait out the storm before getting help but they also face the reality that one of them is a murderer. 

Beatrice is as horrified as everyone else at the turn of events, but she’s even more so when Daniel Ashbrook suggests she assists Inspector Drake in investigating the murder. True, she’s spent many hours imagining what it would be like to solve crimes, but how on earth can she do it when someone as infuriating as Drake is on the case? And who would kill someone in Swampshire of all places?

Author Julia Seales, a self-proclaimed Anglophile, makes her love for and research into Victorian British society plain on every page. While most authors would err too much either on the side of satire or historical accuracy, Seales offers an equal measure of both with the characters as well as the plot. The result is a book that is not only satisfying as a farce of British novels of the Jane Austen era but also a satisfying whodunnit that will keep readers guessing to the end.

The nuance in Seales’s book is deeply impressive. Even with the lighthearted tone, the novel contains layers that reveal the author’s mastery both in plotting and in craft mechanics. Writers in any genre wanting to know how to create a rich world would do well to pick up the novel as a case study.

Those who enjoy a compelling murder mystery will definitely want to read this one. Readers who like books with a lighthearted, comedic tone will also find plenty to enjoy here. I recommend readers Binge A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales.

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