Elizabeth Pewsey (1948–2016)

Aston's Darcy series is one of my addictions, and this latest installment is just as good as the rest. In this book, Aston takes a look at Charlotte and Eliza Collins, the two daughters of Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas from Pride and Prejudice. Charlotte, the elder, is extremely beautiful but also extremely reserved; the younger daughter Eliza isn't as pretty, but she is witty and intelligent. Both girls are granted the opportunity of a London Season, where Charlotte's duty is to make a show more good marriage, and Eliza's is to stay out of the way. Romance comes to both sisters, but of course there are obstacles, which eventually dissipate in true Austen style with weddings. Eliza finds the right guy for her, but I was a bit let down by the outcome of Charlotte's story - I feel like we didn't get enough of her motivations or feelings. Overall, I applaud Aston for doing these Austen spinoffs that don't really focus on Austen's characters, like Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. It's hard to keep those characters true to Austen's originals - because no one can write them as well as Austen did - so Aston wisely doesn't try. Instead, she deals with daughters, nieces, and distant relations, and I think she does a good job of delivering Austen-flavored Regency romances in a well-written and lighthearted style. show less

Take one part Josephine Tey’s Allen Grant and one part Agatha Christie’s Tommy Beresford, then add a soupçon of G.M. Malliet’s Max Tudor, and you’d have author Elizabeth Edmondson’s A Man of Some Repute, the debut novel in what promises to be a delectable historical mystery series.

It’s 1953, and the mysterious Hugo Hawksworth arrives in the quiet English village of Selchester with his lively 13-year-old sister Georgia in tow. He’s supposed to be a statistician at Thorn Hall, show more but the entire village knows that he — like everyone else who works for Sir Bernard at The Hall — is actually Special Branch or something near enough.

In early 1947, Lord Selchester disappeared from his home, Selchester Castle, during a raging blizzard; his pretty, selfish daughter Lady Sonia Richmond has been counting down the time until she can have him declared legally dead and sell the old pile. She’s spared the trouble when her father’s bones turn up in the castle’s chapel. That re-opens the case, and Inspector MacLeod, who led the initial investigation, returns. He and Hawksworth combine forces to determine who did the old peer in. Edmondson does yeoman’s work crafting an intriguing mystery with suspects galore and a Golden Age of mystery sensibility that’s an homage rather than a cliché. Indeed, Edmondson has perfectly captured the atmosphere and dialogue evocative of the English 1950s, when rationing still held sway but the country was restless for something new and better. Further, Edmondson infuses the novel with plenty of intrigue and suspense.

If Hugo’s playing Tommy Beresford, then the role of Tuppence goes to Freya Wryton, Lord Selchester’s free-spirited niece. It’s no spoiler to say Hugo and Freya are likely to get together before this series gets too old. I loved A Man of Some Repute, and I can’t wait to devour the sequel, A Question of Inheritance.

A Man of Some Repute’s Hugo Hawksworth put me in mind of Max Tutor; in addition to the two of them having spy connections, the audiobooks for both are read by the magnificent Michael Page, who brings his great talent to bringing both Hugo’s Selchester And Max’s Nether Monkslip to life. show less

Elizabeth Edmondson’s A Villa in Italy owes a large debt to her namesake, Elizabeth von Arnim and her magical The Enchanted April. As in van Arnim’s book, four dissimilar people (ladies in van Arnim’s version) descend on a villa in Italy, each vaguely dissatisfied with their lives, and their time on the continent changes them and their entire lives.

Edmondson takes that premise and adds a mystery. In her novel, set after World War II, the foursome — an opera singer, a floundering show more mystery novelist, a New York banker with a guilty conscience, and a physicist distraught that his work at Los Alamos led to nuclear destruction — travel to the Villa Dante in Liguria to claim legacies. The foursome are strangers not only to each other, but none knew their benefactor, Beatrice Malaspina, either. Who was the mysterious Beatrice Malaspina? And why did she mention these strangers in her will? And are there other secrets yet to unfold?

I adored Edmondson’s fabulous series featuring intelligence officer Hugo Hawksworth (A Man of Some Repute and A Question of Inheritance, the novella A Youthful Indiscretion thrown in for good measure), and I can’t wait for the third novel, which can’t come too soon for me. (Best of all, these are available for free for those with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.) That said, I loved, loved, loved this stand-alone novel, which will leave you feeling as contented as if you, too, had spent a few sun-dapples summer weeks at the Villa Dante. show less

In the third novel — and, sadly, last — in the series featuring spy Hugo Hawksworth and his family and friends, an atomic physicist has disappeared from near their village of Selchester. A brash zealot from Special Branch has come down from London to look into the disappearance, convinced that Dr. Bruno Rothesay has defected to the Soviet Union and that the local intelligence agents are at fault. The arrogant Inspector Jarrett (the allusion to Javert is all too obvious) will cause plenty show more of upset before Hugo, with the aid of his free-spirited friend Freya Wryton, settles the matter.

Author Elizabeth Edmondson died in 2016 before she had finished the novel, and I was dubious whether her son, Anselm Audley, would be up to the task. (His usual oeuvre is sci-fi fantasy novels.) But Audley did his mother proud in his handling of the series that debuted with
A Man of Some Repute. A Matter of Loyalty was as suspenseful and intriguing as the books that Edmondson wrote all by herself. I loved every single minute!

But Audley’s triumph proves bittersweet: He says there won’t be any further adventures for Hugo and Freya and Georgia and their delightful family and friends.

This will be the last Selchester book, and the last book of her career…. I knew enough of this one to write almost the book she intended, but I can’t do justice to the remaining books in the series. They should exist as her creations, or not at all.

So there you have it. A worthy end to a marvelous series. Thank you, Mr. Audley, for this final gift from your mother.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer in exchange for an honest review. show less