Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia HastingsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Violet Manville, spirited, intelligent, not the type to suffer fools gladly, and most unforgivably in Victorian society, not possessed of a large fortune, is not the type of young lady who is in great demand as a wife. Luckily, she doesn’t care and is happy to leave that type of thing to her younger half-sister Sephora, who is beautiful, flirtatious, and an heiress. Even she, however, is somewhat daunted when her Aunt Adelia leaves on holiday and informs her that she is expected to take up Adelia’s role as “Miss Hermione,” one of the country’s popular “agony aunts,” or in modern parlance, an advice columnist.
When one of the first letters she opens is from Ivy Armstrong, a new young wife who has experienced several "accidents" and believes that someone is trying to kill her, Violet is concerned enough that she sets off to meet with her, only to discover that she has arrived too late. Almost no one, however, seems to seriously think that Ivy was murdered, attributing her death to either suicide or accident. Violet determines to prove that she was and soon finds herself in danger from a killer who is determined not to be caught. Meanwhile, Sephora, from whose point of view some chapters are told, is involved in a secret romance that has a surprising (if somewhat far-fetched) connection to the situation.
Despite that, as well as a few other things that seemed like a stretch, like well-bred young ladies being out and about unattended, I enjoyed Of Manners and Murder very much. I liked Violet and Bundy, her aunt’s servant, who serves as a sort of Watson for her, and even Sephora, while immature, has potential. I look forward to the next in the series. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
I received a copy of Of Manners and Murder from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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