Spotlight on A Most Agreeable Murder

I listened to A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales (2023) on audiobook (read by Fiona Hampton), and it had me chuckling aloud. This send up of 19th-century novels and the like is perfect for an Austen fan like me. Throw in a murder mystery, and I couldn’t have been more enchanted.

Beatrice Steele has two sisters — the beautiful Louisa and the overlooked Mary — a prankster father, and a mother who is (of course) obsessed with finding advantageous matches for her brood. They live in Swampshire, a boggy part of England cursed with bad weather and squelch-holes.

Everyone is Swampshire attends closely to etiquette, based on a book written by the ancestor of a local family, who are hosting the annual fall ball complete with a visiting eligible bachelor named Edmund Croaksworth. (These delicious names!) Beatrice has a secret hobby that is not proper for young ladies: she loves to read newspaper accounts by a London detective about the murders he solves.

Finding husbands becomes urgent when Beatrice’s cousin Martin Grub threatens to take the family inheritance even before her father is dead. The Steele family sets off to the ball determined to come away with engagements and financial security.

When a disgraced London dectective also attends the ball, claiming to be the friend of Croaksworth, Beatrice is intrigued. When Croaksworth is murdered, she is honestly thrilled and determined to solve the crime.

The over-the-top characters, the comic names, and the jabs at 19th-century literature were a delight. Mystery lovers and Austen-ites will love this fun and funny novel.