Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend

 

 It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:

• Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
• The Friday 56 which was hosted for many years by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them. Since Freda's blog is currently on hiatus, the meme is being maintained by Anne at My Head is Full of Books. Visit Anne's blog to post and read the weekly entries. 

Today I'm featuring A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. The excerpts shared are from an eBook borrowed from the library.

 

Book Beginning/First Line:  Chapter 1 -- Introductions

In the English countryside there was a small township called Swampshire, comprised of several lovely mansions and one disgusting swamp.

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56% of eBook:  "There is one thing which might be of interest," Miss Bolton said in a soft voice. Drake stoppe pacing and waited for her to continue.

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My thoughts:  Protagonist Beatrice Steele is the most unconventional of young women for her time. She flouts the rules of etiquette and acceptable female behavior to pursue her interest in crime solving. When a murder lands on her figurative doorstep, Beatrice demonstrates her talent for finding clues and drawing sound conclusions based on the evidence she observes.

A Most Agreeable Murder is a most enjoyable read. Its balance of quirky characters, mysterious goings on, humor, and plot twists are first-rate. I hope the author plans a return to this setting and time period for further exploits with the spirited Beatrice.

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From GoodReads: When a wealthy bachelor drops dead at a ball, a young lady takes on the decidedly improper role of detective in this action-packed debut comedy of manners and murder.

Feisty, passionate Beatrice Steele has never fit the definition of a true lady, according to the strict code of conduct that reigns in Swampshire, her small English township--she is terrible at needlework, has absolutely no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Nevertheless, she lives a perfectly agreeable life with her marriage-scheming mother, prankster father, and two younger sisters-- beautiful Louisa and forgettable Mary. But she harbors a dark secret: She is obsessed with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. If anyone in her etiquette-obsessed community found out, she'd be deemed a morbid creep and banished from respectable society forever.

For her family's sake, she's vowed to put her obsession behind her. Because eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the approaching autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart. If not, Martin Grub, their disgusting cousin, will inherit the family's estate, and they will be ruined or, even worse, forced to move to France. So Beatrice must be on her best behavior, which is made difficult when a disgraced yet alluring detective inexplicably shows up to the ball.

Beatrice is just holding things together when Croaksworth drops dead in the middle of a minuet. As a storm rages outside, the evening descends into a frenzy of panic, fear, and betrayal as it becomes clear they are trapped with a killer. Contending with competitive card games, tricky tonics, and Swampshire's infamous squelch holes, Beatrice must rise above decorum and decency to pursue justice and her own desires--before anyone else is murdered.

 

 

 

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This Friday Focus: Bookish Memes to Start the Weekend post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com. It cannot be republished without attribution.