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A MOST AGREEABLE MURDER is a delightful romp for Jane Austen fans as well as those who love a cozy mystery. For while every bachelor in possession of a fortune many not be in want of a wife, a country house gathering frequently does seem to encourage a bit of murder in some circles, and Julia Seales makes the most of both genres and their possibilities for amusement. But while the character types and their situations may be thoroughly familiar to Austen fans, Seales does not commit murder in the midst of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, à la P.D. James. Instead, Seales uses Austen's conventions and puts a clever spin on them to create her own murder mystery. Along the way, she also pokes fun at any number of situations an English major will recognize (Seales herself earned a BA in English at Vanderbilt), but as those same English majors will know, Austen herself was often poking fun at conventions, and the tone of Seales's novel comes off as playful rather than denigrating, and the cleverness, while always apparent, never entirely overshadows the fact that this is, indeed, a good mystery novel.
The story itself stars heroine Beatrice Steele, a young woman with a sharp intelligence—and an unseemly interest in murder. She tries to keep her interest secret to avoid embarrassing her family, but when a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball and Beatrice's sister is the prime suspect, Beatrice throws caution and propriety to the wind and joins her fellow ball guest Inspector Vivek Drake in the investigation. Interviews ensue, secrets do out, red herrings abound, and a bit of romance makes an appearance, all of which adds up to a fast-paced, entertaining read that may have you laughing out loud but will also present you with an intriguing puzzle to solve. At the end, there's a hint that this could become a series (or at least have a follow-up novel), and if you're willing to play along with the quirkiness and take the almost-over-the-top spoofing in the spirit of fun with which it definitely seems intended, that's good news, because the two main characters, in particular, are worth spending time with.
§ Meredith Frazier, a writer with a background in English literature, lives in Dallas, Texas
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier, May 2023
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