Anastasia Hastings

A Dear Miss Hermione Mystery

Of Manners and Murder

I definitely enjoyed it, and in no small part because one of the characters shares the same name as me!!

Adelia French

I love a good historical murder mystery, so I was excited to pick this up, but it was a letdown. Nothing about it worked for me. The plot was boring and predictable. The characters felt over-the-top and grating, especially Violet's sister. The writing was stilted and fluctuated between being too descriptive and not enough. It made the narrative feel disjointed. Some moments didn't feel true to the time, so it kept taking me out of the story. I thought the premise was fun and had a lot of potential, but the story as a whole needed some work.

Heather Harrington

Colleen

4.5 Stars
 
*A great start to a new Historical Cozy Mystery series with a spunky female lead character*

Audio ARC provided by Dreamscape Media / Minotaur Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


It was high time I tried out the audiobook feature on Netgalley. Of Manners and Murder caught my eye because I love Historical Mysteries especially ones with smart female characters. (As a side note, I will absolutely be requesting more audio ARCs in the future. I love this new option!)

Of Manners and Murder is about a young woman in London, 1885. Orphaned and fast approaching spinsterhood but with no desire to marry, Violet is at the mercy of her richer relations. When her aunt runs off on an adventure, Violet is left to cover her Aunt Adelia’s secret job as London’s most popular agony aunt. Though her aunt assured her it would be an easy job to fill, Violet finds herself sucked into the storied behind the letters she receives. When one desperate writer reveals she fears someone is trying to harm her, Violet decides to investigate only to find the woman has been murdered. 

I liked this take on the amateur sleuth. It’s always nice when authors find an angle other than someone investigating out of pure nosiness. I found Violet to be a compelling character. Having spent her younger years abroad, Violet had a much broader view (and less insular prejudice) than most of her peers. Her thirst for adventure and a life beyond the narrow trappings of a society lady made her a sympathetic character.

The story was told in first person, past tense and primarily from Violet’s point of view. But there were a few sections told from her half-sister Sephora’s point of view. And that was the main issue I had with the book. Just as the story was getting interesting and finding a good rhythm, the narrative switched to Sephora. And unfortunately, she was vapid, flighty, scatterbrained, and immature. Certainly, she was a product of her society. The story makes it clear that Sephora was raised to be a proper little trophy wife. With a fortune from her mother’s side of the family, Sephora had a very different upbringing and expectations than her poor, older half-sister. While I completely understand that she was a product of her times, I still found Sephora utterly obnoxious. Hopefully, her character will mature in future books, but she didn’t make a good first impression.

I will also mention that the story does have some anachronisms. For example, there is no way an unmarried teenage heiress would have had that much freedom to sneak around. But most of them were minor things, and none of them impeded my enjoyment of the story.

Other than that, Of Manners and Murder was an engaging, fast-paced mystery. The murder mystery itself wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it kept me guessing enough. And I flew through this story in little more than a day. The end events leave many opportunities for future books in the series, and I hope there are more to come! Which leaves me with the downside of reading ARCs: I wanted to binge straight into the next book in the series, but it hasn’t even been announced yet. This sadly means I’ll have to wait even longer to find out what Violet does next. 


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 5 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 4 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 5 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

Of Manners and Murder A Dear Miss Hermione Mystery

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