Lady Rose is bored with her society life. Her parents want to pack her off to India but luckily for Rose, Henry Cathcart suggests she be allowed to go out to work as she wishes. He arranges everything for Rose and Daisy to become typists for a merchant baker. Rose dislikes the make work she's given and Daisy misses the camaraderie and freedom of the theater. The gloominess of winter and difficulty of living on a working woman's wages get to them. One mistake leads to a return to Lord Hadshire's home and the same old society life. Then Rose learns of Freddy Pomfret's death and suspects murder. She's excited to investigate with Harry and Kerridge. Daisy tags along to keep Rose out of trouble and in hopes of seeing Becket again. If only my lady and the Captain would get married. She could be with her Becket and the Captain would be responsible for Rose.This book wasn't as good as the first. The mystery doesn't start until 2/3 way through and it didn't grip me like the first mystery did. It was difficult to solve but I had a hunch who did it and what it had to do with. I was close. As in the first book Ms. Chesney doesn't shy away from the gritty details of Edwardian life. I learned something new about how working girls lived and what kinds of work they did in the early 1900s. It also contains some information on the Boer War and the atrocities committed by the British. The book also contains a lot about fashion but not an excessive amount. My big problem with this story is Rose. Unlike her namesake from Titanic, she just wants to be a rebel because she's bored and feels her parents don't love her. The more scrapes she gets in the more attention they pay to her. This Rose is slightly more realistic than Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey. She is very much a product of her environment and upbringing, which means she's snobby, haughty and a spoiled brat. She does know how to speak to people to get information, unlike Harry who is too blunt. I liked Daisy much better. She's had a hard life and is wise to the ways of the world. I don't see why she insists on following Rose except she doesn't really have a lot of choice but I am sure Harry and/or Becket would find her a new job. Harry isn't very likable either. He's gruff and constantly getting on Rose's bad side. He's rude to her at times yet misses her when she's not around. I don't get why Rose's parents are always asking him for help and why he wants to help. He fixes things in ways I wouldn't at times. I didn't like how he dealt with one big problem. He could have found a legal loophole. The secondary characters are very colorful. I really liked the vegetarian society and the kooky character who heads it. The other suspects are a bit more stereotypical, especially the woman, but they added to the Edwardian feeling of the book. I disliked Harry's secretary and her mother. They were crazy and I expected that plot to go in a different direction. The direction it did go in was random and unnecessary. Becket is very mysterious and fun. I see why Daisy likes him. I like him better than his master, though they probably have more in common than they realized.
Lady Rose und Captain HarryLady Rose hat sich in den Kopf gesetzt, dass sie für ihren Lebensunterhalt arbeiten möchte. Für eine Tochter aus gutem Haus nicht gerade ein angebrachter Gedanke, das ist jedenfalls der Standpunkt ihrer Eltern. Da sie in ihrer Tochter aber eher ein heiratsfähiges Ausstellungsstück sehen, dass wegen der Nähe zur Bewegung der Suffragetten bereits einen zweifelhaften Ruf hat, lassen sie der Tochter ihrer Willen und fahren nach Nizza, um der Kälte Londons zu entfliehen. Damit Rose das Arbeiten auch richtig lernt, wird das Stadthaus der Eltern geschlossen und Rose und ihre Daisy, die Bedienstete, die fast schon ihre Freundin ist, müssen in einer Herberge für werktätige Frauen unterkommen. Außerdem hat Captain Harry den beiden Stellen in einer Bank gesucht, wo sie völlig unnütze Tätigkeiten ausführen. Langeweile, einfache Wohnung, wenig Nahrung, Umstände, die sehr überzeugen, dass das Leben einer Lady aus gutem Haus wohl doch angenehmer ist. Wäre da nicht ein Mord an einem der Kunden der Bank.Lady Rose, Captain Harry und Daisy sind sympathische Charaktere mit Stärken und Schwächen. Manchmal scheint es als sei Rose die Einzige, die den Überblick behält und doch den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht sieht. So muss Harry häufiger zu ihrer Rettung eilen. Daisy, die aus einfachen Verhältnissen kommt, kann ihr Glück in Roses Haushalt aufgenommen zu sein, kaum fassen. Doch hin und wieder sehnt sie sich nach ihrer Welt. Die Eltern der jungen Lady wirken ausgesprochen gefühlskalt, oberflächlich und nur auf den Ruf der Tochter bedacht. Bei den Büchern um Lady Rose und Captain Harry handelt es sich um eine Reihe, von romantisch angehauchten Kriminalromanen, die Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts spielen. So ist in diesem Fall etwas Kritik gegen die Stellung der Frau in der damaligen Gesellschaft verpackt. Rose lehnt sich gegen die Zwänge auf, denen sie eigentlich unterliegt. Allerdings kehrt sie auch immer wieder gerne in ihre gesicherte Umgebung zurück, wenn ihre Ausflüge unangenehm zu werden drohen. Und Harry, den sie natürlich unbewusst lieber mag als sie zugeben möchte, steht immer zu ihrer Rettung bereit. Allerdings stellt er sich manchmal etwas dämlich an, wodurch Rose überhaupt erst auf die Idee kommt, sie müsse die Dinge selbst in die Hand nehmen. Damit der Leser diese Dinge auch bestimmt merkt, sind Situationen häufiger sehr überzeichnet und damit nicht mehr glaubwürdig. Das Buch wartet mit einigen netten Ideen auf, der Fall ist weitestgehend schlüssig, doch sind einige Nebenschauplätze eher eine Ablenkung, deren Sinn sich nicht immer erkennbar ist. Und durch die übertriebene Ausbreitung einiger Charakterzüge, durch die Stereotypie mancher Situationen, wirkt der Roman eben gerade nicht so witzig und romantisch, sondern in Zügen eher nervig. Sicher sehen andere Leser das weniger kritisch, denn gute und leichte Unterhaltung wird sicher geboten. Allerdings werde ich die Reihe nicht zwingend weiter verfolgen.
Do You like book 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
