Book Review: Sick of Shadows

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Sick of Shadows     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Marion Chesney
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Historical
Series: Edwardian Murder Mysteries (chesney)
St. Martin’s, April 2005, $22.95, 224 pp.

Her father is an earl so Lady Rose is firmly ensconced in polite society, a situation she abhors because women have no freedom and are passed from their father to their husband. Lady Rose circumvents the system by arranging a pretend engagement with Captain Harry Cathcart so her parents won’t try to find suitors for her or send her to India for a husband. One night at a ball, Lady Rose meets country girl Dolly Tremaine who seems miserable.

Dolly hates the city and wants to return to the country but her socially ambitious parents want her to find a wealthy aristocratic husband. Feeling sorry for the girl, Rose arranges to meet her in Hyde Park but when she goes to the place they were supposed to meet, she finds Dolly knifed to death. Believing that Dolly confided in her and she has an idea who killed her, someone tries to kill Lady Rose. When the assassin is killed, they find out he was hired by someone to murder Rose which means her life is still in danger.

Marion Chesney, author of the Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series under the pseudonym M.C. Beaton, has written an entertaining and charming tale. Rose is not the typical aristocrat but a woman who sees the class divisions and tries to help the poor. She refuses to let the restrictions her parents impose on her get in the way of doing what she really wants. The romance between Lady Rose and the captain is funny because both constantly misunderstand the other and that gets in the way of the feelings that are growing between them. SICK OF SHADOWS is a fantastic Edwardian amateur sleuth mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner