M.C. Beaton must be one of the hardest-working authors writing in the mystery genre. She is most famous for having written twenty-six Hamish MacBeth detective novels and twenty-one Agatha Raisin mysteries but, it turns out, has also found time to write four historical whodunits. The Edwardian Murder Mystery series was originally published under Beaton’s actual name, Marion Chesney, but are currently being republished with nice Julia Quinn-esque covers asserting the authorship of M.C. Beaton, presumably to solidify her detective brand and keep the Chesney name for her romantic fiction. Snobbery with Violence, a tale of murder and mayhem at a high-society house party, is the first of the Edwardian Murder Mysteries.

Lady Rose Summer was something of a fair-weather Suffragette – while she believed that women’s rights were certainly worth fighting for, the photograph of her at a protest which was published on the front-page of the Daily Mail was really a step too far. With her debut season in London society already becoming something of a disaster, Rose’s parents decide that she must abandon political protest and forget about improving her mind (after all, what gentleman would wish to wed a human encyclopaedia?) and concentrate on making a suitable match. Of course, Rose’s choice of an ideal suitor is vastly different from her father’s picture of the ideal son-in-law and so, when Rose announces her intention to become engaged to notorious bounder Sir Geoffrey Blandon, her father employs Captain Harry Cathcart to do some discreet digging into Blandon’s character. Once Cathcart brings to light Blandon’s dishonourable motives, Rose breaks off the engagement, takes the unforgivable step of making a huge scene in public, and seemingly throws away her chances of ever making a “good” marriage.

In desperation, Rose’s parents insist that she attends a lavish house party thrown by the Marquess of Hedley to try and fix-up the social pariahs of the recent London season. By this time Captain Cathcart has established quite a reputation for discreetly “fixing” things for members of the aristocracy and so, when the Marquess discovers that one of his more disagreeable guests has died in suspicious circumstances, Cathcart is called in to help hush-up the matter. As Cathcart becomes caught between his client’s wish to avoid scandal and his own suspicion that a murder has been committed, Lady Rose becomes far more interested in discovering the truth behind the death than in landing an appropriate suitor. Together with Superintendent Kerridge of Scotland Yard, Cathcart and Rose form an uneasy alliance as they work together to untangle the mystery behind the death and try to stop the body count rising as the mercenary courting continues among their fellow guests.

From reading the summary of Snobbery with Violence it might well seem that the first part of the story seems to be the work of the romance writer Marion Chesney while the second part seems slightly detached and more the work of noted cosy mystery writer M.C. Beaton. Fortunately these two styles knit together well and, although the book begins very much like a humorous historical romance, the emphasis of the novel is actually very much the mystery and the detective exploits of Captain Cathcart and Lady Rose. The strict standards of decorum demanded of society courtships serve as a convincing way of gathering together a group of relative strangers in an isolated country house so that a murder (or three) can be committed and then ultimately wrapped up by the likeably dysfunctional detective duo. While Cathcart and Rose hold centre stage, they are ably aided in their investigations by Cathcart’s Jeeves-style manservant Becket and showgirl-turned-maid Daisy. As ever, the toffs get the glory while the commoners do most of the work. There are plenty of shenanigans afoot both above and below stairs which, when coupled with the amusing snobbery of the upper classes and the unacknowledged presence of a nefarious murderer, help make Snobbery with Violence a fun, fast-paced romp through Edwardian society.

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