Rose and Harry, engaged in name only, compete to solve crimes, with Daisy and Becket serving as the Fred and Ethel to their Lucy and Desi. Repeated romantic misunderstandings, foot-stamping rebellion on Rose's part (against her parents' rules, Harry's rules, and Edwardian England's rules for young ladies of quality) serve as fodder for another mystery in this short series.

Marion Gibbons/Marion Chesney/M.C. Beaton is unapologetically blunt, concluding plotlines with one-sentence afterthoughts, setting up romantic opportunities and knocking them down with the subtlety of a bowling ball, and making me laugh with every book.

No one else could get away with this kind of terrible writing, but I love every word. I'm sad that she's no longer with us. ( )

Book 3 - The adventures continue for Rose, Daisy and Harry ( )

Into the Shadows
Review of the Blackstone Audio Inc. audiobook edition (August 2008) of the original Minotaur hardcover (April 2005)

'I am half sick of shadows,' said
The Lady of Shalott
- excerpt from the poem The Lady of Shalott by Alfred Lord Tennyson, used as the epigram for Chapter 1 of Sick of Shadows

Sick of Shadows continues with the story of Lady Rose Summer and Captain Harry Cathcart in the 3rd of 4 Edwardian Murder Mysteries. I'm finding that the mystery elements are mostly secondary to these plots and are more like MacGuffins. The main story arc is the 'will they or won't they' indirect courtship of the 2 principles, with their companions Daisy and Beckett already planning themselves to tie the knot and hoping to push Rose and Harry in the same direction. It is fairly light and the background setting of the Edwardian era with occasional social commentary is well done.

I've completed my pandemic reading splurge of cozy mysteries by M.C. Beaton, the penname used by Marion Chesney (1936-2019) for her popular Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin series. Chesney first became a writer with various historical romances from 1977 onwards, before branching out into the crime genre with her first Hamish Macbeth in 1985 and first Agatha Raisin in 1992. Romances are not my genre, but Chesney's mini-series of 4 Edwardian Murder Mysteries sounded like enough of a crossover between her historical fiction and her cozy mysteries to follow up on.

The narration by veteran Davina Porter (approx. 230 book narrations to her credit) was excellent throughout. Porter is especially good with her range of voices that is able to effectively mimic male as well as female tones.

All of the Edwardian Murder Mysteries series are available free to Audible Plus members.

Trivia and Link
The somewhat similarly titled I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (2011) is the 4th book in Alan Bradley's popular Flavia de Luce series. ( )

Lady Rose Summer & Captain Harry Cathcart are at it again: A country preacher's daughter, Dolly, is out for the season in order to find a suitable husband. But Dolly is unhappy and turns to Rose for help.

When Rose shows up the next morning to meet Dolly, she finds Dolly very much dead & laid out in a rowing boat arranged to look like the Lady Shallot.

As the story moves along: Rose begins to receive threatening letters and is sent to the country w/ Daisy, her companion; she breaks her engagement to Harry & to avoid being sent to India, proposes to her friend Peter. Peter is then set up in a homosexual scandal and flees to France (Harry & Rose then work to turn the tables).

Daisy & Becket, Harry's valet, are still very much in love but are continually being thwarted by Lady Rose's & Harry's on again/off again relationship.

I'm becoming rather bored w/ Rose & Harry's on-off relationship.... it is tiresome and the problems are mostly caused by his continually being unavailable to attend society functions, where his presence is required and their total lack of communication.

I found the ending to be not very well though out... ( )

Rose is engaged to Harry - though in name only. She befriends a country debutante who ends up dead. Then Rose, along with her trusty maid servant, try to outdo Harry in finding out who killed the girl. Sometimes I just wanted to bang the heads of Rose and Harry together - they are both pretty dense when it comes to understanding how the other feels about them. There's lots of silliness - Rose has lots of "modern" ideas, but really is much more comfortable than she things with the status quo. ( )