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ODE TO A DEAD LORD A Theo Bryght, Runner Mystery "A brilliant story about murder, deception, and love." - The Regency Inkwell |
It is the summer of 1812 ...
Wellington is fighting Napoleon's army in Spain, Lord Byron is dazzling the Beau Monde with the first Canto of his Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - and Viscount Percy Ainsford Foster Ashe is discovered dead in a shabby boarding house in Brighton.
It is assumed that the young man, whose gambling debts were considerable, has committed suicide. But then a suspicious silver locket is discovered by Lady Charlotte Ashe, the dead lord's now penniless widow, and Theo Bryght, a Bow Street Runner from London, is called in to investigate what is now suspected to be murder.
Who would want to murder Viscount Ashe? Is there more to his gambling addiction than meets the eye? Is there any chance that Lady Ashe will ever recover her lost fortune? These questions haunt Lady Ashe after she returns to her home in the North York Moors - for as she soon finds out, her husband's death may be just the first canto in a deadly ode to revenge.
Read the review below, visit the settings, or buy the book at Amazon.
It is assumed that the young man, whose gambling debts were considerable, has committed suicide. But then a suspicious silver locket is discovered by Lady Charlotte Ashe, the dead lord's now penniless widow, and Theo Bryght, a Bow Street Runner from London, is called in to investigate what is now suspected to be murder.
Who would want to murder Viscount Ashe? Is there more to his gambling addiction than meets the eye? Is there any chance that Lady Ashe will ever recover her lost fortune? These questions haunt Lady Ashe after she returns to her home in the North York Moors - for as she soon finds out, her husband's death may be just the first canto in a deadly ode to revenge.
Read the review below, visit the settings, or buy the book at Amazon.
The Regency Inkwell Book Reviews
Ode to a Dead Lord by Jolie Beaumont Ms. Beaumont’s “Ode to a Dead Lord” is a brilliant story about murder, deception and love. Young Lord Ashe is found dead – an apparent suicide. However there are others who believe that he was murdered, including his now penniless widow, Lady Charlotte Ashe.
Prior to marrying Lord Ashe, Charlotte was the granddaughter of a wealthy tradesman. Wanting to buy his granddaughter a title, something that was often done in Regency period, he approves of her choice for a husband and settles all of her fortune irrevocably on the young man.
Ms. Beaumont’s Charlotte is wealthy unlike Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) the Misses Bennets of Pride and Prejudice and the Misses Dashwoods of Sense and Sensibility who were either in danger of being left penniless or left with very little to manage in a male dominated society.
Ms. Beaumont underlines the simplicity of the story with social issues of the Regency period that affected both men and women. Many of these women’s fortune, upon marrying, were automatically turned over to their husbands.
Beaumont complicates the story further by adding a male’s perspective; like Austen’s Willoughby of Sense and Sensibility, who is threatened by a distant aunt to marry well or risk being left penniless should he settle on Miss Marianne Dashwood. Ms. Beaumont brings us Mr. Theo Bryght. Mr. Bryght, nee Nathaniel Clermont, is the younger son of the fifth Earl of Warrington. Unlike Willoughby, who would rather lose the woman he loves for the comforts that wealth could bring him, Clermont chooses to go against his father’s wishes – to join the clergy.
Clermont is disowned. The uniqueness of Beaumont’s hero and what separates him from Willoughby lies in his belief that ‘to thine own self (he must) be true’. He would rather risk the comforts of living well than to risk his self-worth and integrity. Needing to earn an income, Nathaniel Clermont becomes a Bow Street Runner – a member of London’s professional police force. Ms. Beaumont uses Clermont to show that women were not the only ones in Regency period who were often left penniless and thus find another means of earning their living.
Ode to a Dead Lord is well written and flows easily while several story lines are interwoven. Ms. Beaumont ties all loose ends with the exception of the relationship between Theo Bryght and Charlotte Ashe. One can only hope (I know I am hoping) that she intends to bring us a sequel, where both Theo Bryght and Charlotte end up together – though they do go as far as admitting to themselves how they feel about the other. I think that Ms. Jolie Beaumont is sitting on wondrous gold mine of untold stories about Mr. Theo Bryght and his future investigations alongside his lady love, Charlotte Ashe. Reading about these bow street runners, I think of Ms. Anne Perry’s Victorian period hero of the “Inspector Pitt” series.
Ode to a Dead Lord by Jolie Beaumont Ms. Beaumont’s “Ode to a Dead Lord” is a brilliant story about murder, deception and love. Young Lord Ashe is found dead – an apparent suicide. However there are others who believe that he was murdered, including his now penniless widow, Lady Charlotte Ashe.
Prior to marrying Lord Ashe, Charlotte was the granddaughter of a wealthy tradesman. Wanting to buy his granddaughter a title, something that was often done in Regency period, he approves of her choice for a husband and settles all of her fortune irrevocably on the young man.
Ms. Beaumont’s Charlotte is wealthy unlike Jane Austen’s (1775-1817) the Misses Bennets of Pride and Prejudice and the Misses Dashwoods of Sense and Sensibility who were either in danger of being left penniless or left with very little to manage in a male dominated society.
Ms. Beaumont underlines the simplicity of the story with social issues of the Regency period that affected both men and women. Many of these women’s fortune, upon marrying, were automatically turned over to their husbands.
Beaumont complicates the story further by adding a male’s perspective; like Austen’s Willoughby of Sense and Sensibility, who is threatened by a distant aunt to marry well or risk being left penniless should he settle on Miss Marianne Dashwood. Ms. Beaumont brings us Mr. Theo Bryght. Mr. Bryght, nee Nathaniel Clermont, is the younger son of the fifth Earl of Warrington. Unlike Willoughby, who would rather lose the woman he loves for the comforts that wealth could bring him, Clermont chooses to go against his father’s wishes – to join the clergy.
Clermont is disowned. The uniqueness of Beaumont’s hero and what separates him from Willoughby lies in his belief that ‘to thine own self (he must) be true’. He would rather risk the comforts of living well than to risk his self-worth and integrity. Needing to earn an income, Nathaniel Clermont becomes a Bow Street Runner – a member of London’s professional police force. Ms. Beaumont uses Clermont to show that women were not the only ones in Regency period who were often left penniless and thus find another means of earning their living.
Ode to a Dead Lord is well written and flows easily while several story lines are interwoven. Ms. Beaumont ties all loose ends with the exception of the relationship between Theo Bryght and Charlotte Ashe. One can only hope (I know I am hoping) that she intends to bring us a sequel, where both Theo Bryght and Charlotte end up together – though they do go as far as admitting to themselves how they feel about the other. I think that Ms. Jolie Beaumont is sitting on wondrous gold mine of untold stories about Mr. Theo Bryght and his future investigations alongside his lady love, Charlotte Ashe. Reading about these bow street runners, I think of Ms. Anne Perry’s Victorian period hero of the “Inspector Pitt” series.