I was lucky enough to find not just books but ARCS for my Summer of Scandal!

For this week’s edition of “rich people behaving badly”, we’re rewinding to the Regency era with A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. (Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the gift copy!) I was so excited to sit down with this – as both a Jane Austen and a mystery fan, I couldn’t wait to read the story of Beatrice Steele, a wannabe-turned-amateur detective when a fellow house party guest dies.

I was expecting a fun mystery and a great heroine – what I was not expected was the humor. A heroine that “does not fit the definition of a lady” could follow a number of flavors, and Seale has gone for the most entertaining. That makes the novel a potential triple-threat (historical mystery parody) but also gives it more room to flounder. So how well does A Most Agreeable Murder meet the bar it sets itself?

Regency – but add snark

A Most Agreeable Murder takes place in Swampshire, which tells you a lot about the tone of the book. Seales’s tone and description of the setting is joyful in its skewering of Regency-era tropes. The townspeople love etiquette and hate France. In fact, they’re so dedicated to etiquette that the town lives by a multi-volume tone of rules, which guides acceptable behavior. Those that break the rules end up banished forever.

As you can tell, it’s a bit over the top – and this is the tone Seales maintains through the whole book. Every character is a loving caricature of an Austen-era trope, from the overbearing hypochondriac father to the looming, eye patch wearing detective. There’s a lonely spinster who is both a crazy cat lady and a self-funded artist. Then there are the cultural practices – women should be seen and not heard; women should bake perfect scones and dress in precisely dictated ways. One of the women in town declares an annual Color of the Year, which all the women must wear to every ball for that season.

It’s a detailed, loving send-up of some of the most common Regency-era tropes, whether pulled from actual Regency-era fiction or the romance novels that followed it. And if you know and love those tropes – and you’re in the mood for a laugh – Seales’ excels at this loving parody.

A Real Mystery!

Given that tongue-in-cheek tone, I was not expecting to find a true mystery, clues and all, at the heart of this book. I’ve been pretty vocal about my thoughts on cozy “mysteries”. Most, in my opinion, are actually adventure novels with a mystery “theme”; I expected more of the same here. But Seales gifted us with a solvable mystery, something “fair play”. I found myself able to guess at not just the mystery, but also the red herrings.

So how does Beatrice Steele’s first murder investigation unfold? When a dinner guest drops dead at a dinner party, Beatrice is immediately suspicious. And while Swampshire etiquette won’t let her investigate, she’s allowed to “tag along” with infamous investigator Vivek Drake, for the sake of propriety. The duo are chaperoned by the local spinster + playwright, adding an entertaining (and sometimes informative) perspective to each chapter. And, while I’ll avoid spoilers, one can intuit the solution to the mystery by the novel’s climax.

Now I will say, it’s not the most complex mystery. But given the current state of cozy / funny mystery, I’ll take a real puzzle over a “complex” unsolvable one any day. I love my mystery heroines to actually have the brains to figure out the mysteries in front of them. Seales (and Steele) certainly deliver on that front.

Another take at historical feminism

As with so many modern cozy mysteries, the real stars are the women. Even within the caricatures and the tropes, Seales takes the time to land nuance with every female character. At first blush, this is a story about Beatrice’s empowerment, her escape from the confines of constrictive Swampshire society. And it certainly is that. But Seales layers that theme of female empowerment, in all its flavors, throughout the story.

Thematically, it works. Tonally, I’m not so sure… Because while it’s great to have multiple female characters find their place in the world, the writing can seem like it’s making fun of them at all times for that. There’s a bit of the Marvel effect here, where there’s such tonal whiplash that it’s hard to tell what we’re genuinely excited about as readers. Which is a shame! Because the novel is so close to thematic resonance, it’s almost harder when it slightly misses.

Reader’s notes & rating (⭐⭐⭐✨)

I had a grand ol’ time reading A Most Agreeable Murder, and you probably know if you will, too. For those in the overlap between “Regency era fans”, “snarky parody fans”, and “cozy mystery diehards”, this is definitely worth the read. It’s a niche read, and a very fun one! Three and a half stars.

A Most Agreeable Murder was published on June 27, 2023.