Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

I recently grabbed a book off of the new mysteries shelf at my local library and knew almost immediately that I was missing quite a bit of backstory, only to realize I was starting with book #7 of a series. I enjoyed An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder – albeit without the backstory – enough to check out book #1 which I finished today.

I am of mixed minds on this series. There was a lot in book #1 that I really enjoyed, but there was a moment in the middle of the book when I thought about whether I should be enjoying it or not. This series is set in the Victorian Era, pre-Downton Abbey season 1, if you will. Book #7 took place during the Paris Exposition, which began in April of 1900, with Queen Victoria still on the throne. There is so much formality about Every. Little. Thing. Men and women have very, very strict boundaries and restrictions on clothing, hobbies, culture, relationships, money, Everything. Women are really not much more than property, and if an American heiress, they are merely the PIN number to an unlimited number of withdrawals from the ATM that is their daddy’s vast fortune. Given that I consider myself a modern woman, with a fondness for technology and all the freedoms I enjoy as a baby boomer, I would have hated feeling like I was engaged to be married to a handsome titled gentleman only for my father’s bank account and not for my character, my personality, my intelligence, etc.

The raising of children during the Victorian Era was left to the staff, be it nursemaids, nannies, or governesses, and this goes against everything I know and feel about parenting. In book #1 we catch rare glimpses of Rose, daughter of Lady Frances, being raised by her single mom, widow of the late Earl of Harleigh. I could never have spent so little time with my own two (now adult) daughters, and have just enjoyed a family vacation where we were altogether in sunny California!

Yet, I LOVED Downton Abbey. Every Sunday night I would hunker down for a new episode, shutting down all my technology and declaring myself off-the-grid until the episode was over, even as I watched the servants working so hard from dawn to dusk, living in cramped quarters in the attic of a castle, curtsying and bobbing to everyone, being a fly on the wall of all that went on within the castle walls.

Lots of people talk about their guilty pleasures, whether it is streaming the real housewives of wherever, playing video games for hours on end, eating a favorite junk food right after working out, etc. So, I guess reading mysteries about the lifestyles of the rich and famous during the Victorian Era might just be my own guilty pleasure.

In reviewing book #1 of this series, Publishers Weekly, in its Starred Review, said “Dazzling…Fans of witty, lighthearted Victorian mysteries will be enthralled.” So, I guess, I have fallen under the spell of Lady Frances and Mr. George Hazelton. Reading book #1 and seeing their relationship grow, in such baby steps that are quintessential Victorian courtship, was heartwarming, and a bit of an escape from the news of the day, of which today is ironically Election Day in America. How much more anti-Victorian could the world be today, for a woman of mixed race to be vying for the position of President of the United States, and if elected, her husband being elevated to the role of First Husband?

Near the end of book #1, I had the image of Lady Frances as a modern woman. In the story, she had dressed in her “mourning dress and cloak,” i.e. all black, waiting outside the darkened home of a British aristocrat, to have George Hazelton – dare I say it – put his hands around her waist to lift her to the window sill – entering illegally in a search for incriminating evidence. I could just picture this story fast forwarding to today, Frances, in black leggings and a black turtleneck, her all-black Nikes laced tightly, hair pulled back in a low ponytail, waiting in the dark, relying solely on her own finely honed muscles from years of yoga and Pilates, to hoist herself into the opened window. In fact, I think the plot of book #1 could so easily be transformed into a Netflix series, starring Jennifer Garner and George Clooney (I mean, his name IS George, after all).

If you, too, count Victorian cozy mysteries as your own guilty pleasure, give this series a try. I’ll be sprinkling my TBR list with books #2-6 to spend more time with Frances and George. Thank you, Libby and MCPL, for allowing me to take book #1 with me on vacation this summer!