What do You think about Hasty Death (2005)?
This book, written by the MC Beaton of Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin fame, is the second outing for Lady Rose Summer, her maid Daisy and Captain Harry Cathcart.Set in early 20th century England, it's a tale of blackmail and murder. And working in an office. The latter happens when Lady Rose, deciding she wants to know what it's like being a member of the working classes, gets a job in a bank. I finished this book feeling like I wanted a little more from it. Much of the time it vacillated between being a murder mystery and a love story between Lady Rose and Captain Cathcart that, in the end, went nowhere. I haven't read the first book in this series but I have to admit the characters didn't engage me enough to want to go back and read the others. Rose Summer was a little too lightweight for my taste, and was frequently outshone by the more minor character of her maid Daisy, and didn't have enough quirkiness to rescue her from the sameness of the almost-feisty and only sometimes helpless heroines you find in so many other books. This is a real shame since I know author can create memorable characters, not just Hamish and Agatha but Miss Pym the Travelling Matchmaker and the Tribble Sisters of the School for Manners series.
—Tracy Enright
Another Edwardian murder mystery this is the second instalment in the series about the adventures of Lady Rose Summer and Captain Harry Cathcart. After the end of book one where we met them and they solved a murder, it seems Lady Rose has some tender feelings for Captain Harry and wouldn’t be averse to a match between them. Unfortunately Captain Harry seems clueless and is ready to go on as a private investigator without Lady Rose. Lady Rose is your usually spoiled debutante but you can’t help finding her funny and her attempts to lead a normal life. She decides to be a working girl, and, with some discreet help from Harry, manages to find employment in a bank with her companion and friend Daisy. One can’t help but shudder at the difficult like working women faced at the time having to live in hotels and in deficient conditions. Not what Lady Rose is used to so she quickly goes back to her parents and continues to drive them mad with not wanting to marry. The mystery plot is not very strong and maybe that’s why I was more interested in Rose and Harry’s adventures than in finding out who murder a young gentleman who could have been blackmailing a number of people. But Rose and Harry soon turn their attentions to catching the killer and I followed along with them. Parts of the book are actually quite funny, with Rose realising that working girls didn’t have an easier life as she thought or with Harry’s secretary falling for him, so that actually compensated for the fact that I wasn’t that interested in the mystery. By the end of the book Rose is nowhere near marriage but she and Harry devise a plan when her parents threaten to take her to India in search of a husband. They’ll pretend they’re engaged and that will leave Rose with more freedom for a while till they decide to part ways and she jilts him. I can’t wait for the next book to see how they are going to pull that one off. Although the characters are very atypical I think Chesney can give a decent enough feel of the period in a light charming way.Grade: 4/5
—Ana T.
I've decided for this short series of books to review them as a whole. I read them one after the other in about a 24 hour time period, so they all sort of seem like one really long book to me, and I am not at all sure that I could review them separately.My plan is to copy and past the review to each of the four books, so I will post most all of the review under a spoiler cut, because I am sure that I will mention things that would be considered spoilerish.My overall rating for the series is 3.75 stars...ok, actually it was 3.63, but I rounded it up.The books are all light, breezy, and very quick reads--all of them clocking in at just under 225 pages. I enjoyed the books as a whole, the characters (while sometimes extremely frustrating to me) were engaging, the writing style was pleasing, and while the books were mostly lighthearted and amusing, there were a few tense moments as well. The mysteries were pretty easy to figure out, and therefore didn't require much thought...which is something that I sometimes look for in a book.(view spoiler)[I think the thing that frustrated me the most was the back and forth between Lady Rose and Captain Harry. They both loved each other, but neither could admit it to themselves, much less the other. The on again/off again engagement of convenience between the two grew very tedious very quickly as did the 'I love you but am to scared to show it so I act as if I hate you' trope that the author employed throughout the series to create conflict between the two. One would see or hear something about the other that they'd misunderstand and then go off in a snit until they found out they were wrong. I could see that happening in the first book since they didn't know each other that well, but by the time the fourth book rolled around there really should have been some other means of conflict between the two or just have them get together and acknowledge their feelings for each other . I don't know...maybe it wouldn't have bothered me so badly if I hadn't read all four of them so quickly.I liked both Harry and Rose, though both--at times--made me wish I could shake them, for the reasons mentioned above as well as for other things. Though both did show some emotional growth and maturity during the series...Rose especially.I liked the secondary storyline between Harry's manservant, Becket, and Rose's lady's maid/later companion, Daisy.Two characters I could hardly find any redeeming qualities in at all were Rose's parents. OH MY WORD what an insufferable pair they were!I've read that the author isn't planning on writing anymore books in this series, preferring instead to concentrate on her two other series, so I'm glad that this one ended the way it did. The implied happy ending is there, but it is also open ended enough to pick the series back up should the author ever change her mind. (hide spoiler)]
—Jennifer
