A Most Agreeable Murder
Julia Seales
4 stars
Format: Paperback
Julia Seales’s debut novel is a wild ride in which anything is possible, everyone is fair game, and the squelch holes are deadly.
Beatrice Steele, a fiery young woman in the English township of Swampshire, loves murder (solving it, that is). She’s a superfan of London’s foremost detective, Mr. Huxley, and spends her free time writing him letters responding to the crimes he details in his newspaper column. This is all done under a veil of secrecy, as the ladies of Swampshire are made to follow strict rules of etiquette. The Lady’s Guide to Swampshire, in fact, has two hundred fifteen chapters…in the first volume.
A Most Agreeable Murder is a Regency Era locked-room mystery that takes place over one wild-weathered evening. After a death is witnessed by the attendees at a ball, Beatrice assists Mr. Huxley’s disgraced sidekick, Inspector Drake, in finding and bringing to justice the killer. But you’d be mistaken if you thought this was an average murder mystery. This one is for the weirdos.
Each character is an absurd take on familiar personalities, like those in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. First, there’s the marriage-minded mother, Mrs. Steele, whose sole focus in life is to find husbands for her three daughters: Beatrice, the eldest and reminiscent of Elizabeth Bennet; Louisa, the middle child and most appealing; and Mary, the youngest and most peculiar.
Mr. Grub, the greedy cousin, is a wild caricature of Mr. Collins. I was expecting at any moment for Mr. Grub to comment on the excellent boiled potatoes. Where Mr. Collins was merely unappealing, Mr. Grub is a disgusting specimen. The reader recoils every time he spits and dribbles through his speech. The cast is large but not overwhelming and each character is so distinct (read: strange) that the reader couldn’t possibly get confused.
While the story was well-paced, the contemporary language in this quirky period piece makes for a bumpy start. It takes roughly fifty pages to step into the rhythm and tone, but at one hundred pages, the reader is hooked. And once expectations are lifted, the reader can enjoy the nutty characters and entertaining plot. This imaginative satire tickles the reader at all the zany turns, of which there are many! I can imagine Tim Burton having a fabulous time using his particular brand of weird to bring this story to the screen.
Overall, I found A Most Agreeable Murder to be a most agreeable read. Beatrice is a vibrant and vivacious main character who complements Inspector Drake’s moody and bitter disposition. This Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie mystery is the perfect option to break a reading rut, get out of your comfort zone, and let your freak flag fly.
