Caroline Dunford's A Death In The Highlands

It's August 1910 and Euphemia is back for her second story (you can read my ramble about the first one here). The first book was a quick and enjoyable read and the second proved to carry suit.

As the back cover says, she's still working for the Stapleford's and has been temporarily promoted to help oversee the ongoings during a hunting trip to Scotland. It was fun to see Effie and the others again and to be reminded who innocent and proper she is -- especially when it comes to dealings with the opposite sex.

The unconventional relationship between Bertram and Effie was one of the highlights of the first book for me and continued to be so in the second. With her being a maid and him being a master of the house it is unusual for them to have had a friendship much less one that sometimes seems to be bordering on more. (Of course, readers know that her social standing would actually be higher than his if her grandfather un-disowned her mother.) Sometimes Bertram treats her as a friend and confidant ... sometimes he treats her as he would any other member of the staff. Really, it causes me much consternation at times, too. For the most part, though, even when he is on one of his "Euphemia is just a maid" kicks he still treats her well -- especially when his brother and sister do not. He even offered her the chance to clean up in his personal wash room after she had to repeatedly clean muddy stairs thanks to his sister.

One doesn't always think of the little differences 105 years can make -- like Effie never having had a shower before! Well, one might ... but I didn't until this happened.

Rory, the new butler, also paid more attention to Euphemia than may have been considered proper which confused the poor girl even more. Really. As if she didn't have enough on her mind with concealing her true identity AND supporting her mother and brother AND solving murders all while trying to figure out how to properly manage a household? Now she has TWO men to try and figure out?

I can't wait to see how much more rattled she gets in the next book!

Oh, yeah. The mystery plot of it all. It's a nice change to have a mystery where I honestly had no idea "whodunnit" until the big reveal. Of course, it's all told in the first person by Euphemia so the reader really couldn't know until she did. But, still. It's fun watching it all unfold from the first person with only as many clues as they've been given. Watching her blunder her way through the rest of her life while dealing it was still more fun, though.

Caroline Dunford's A Death In The Family

A quick little ramble about a quick little read. If I hadn't been distracted by work and stupid Facebook games I probably would have finished it in a single work shift with time to spare!

After her father, a vicar, unexpectedly falls dead face first into his dinner 18 year old Euphemia ("Effie") Martin takes it upon herself to get a job in order to help support her mother and younger brother. She answers an advertisement for service help at the home of Lord and Lady Stapleford using fictional experience and soon after arriving at the home finds a dead body in a service corridor. Being newly there and obviously not a professional housemaid, she's immediately on the top of the suspect list. She tries to explain herself by admitting only that she's in service because of her father's death -- but omits the fact that her family is actually of higher social standing than her employers. (Her grandfather is an Earl but pretty much disowned Effie's mother when she married or something like that.)

The year is 1910 which gives the tale a feel of the original ITV run of Upstairs, Downstairs or Downton Abbey. Please note, though, that I've ONLY mentioned the shows in case you're not otherwise familiar with the time period and the separation of the servants from the family. I saw it suggested that the book was some sort of spoof on Downton. This, of course, would be hard to pull off since the book was first published a year before Downton hit the air. I'm nitpicking. I'm in one of those moods. (These are the same types of reviewers who complain that English spellings are used instead of American. Eesh.)

Anyway, it's a pleasant enough read. Euphemia is often quick to act/speak before she thinks things through. She's 18 years old, after all, and I can imagine that 18 year olds in 1910 weren't all that different than 18 year olds now (at least as far as the whole ability to keep their mouth shut part goes). Of course not everyone in the household reacts well to her but she does bond rather quickly with some of the members from each side of the house -- the servants as well as the family. In fact, she ends up teaming up with one of the Stapleford sons to clear her name, keep her position, and solve the crime.

For me the relationship between Euphemia and Bertram is the highlight of the whole book. The mystery aspect was decently written, but for me it was secondary to Effie and Bert. They play off of each other quite wonderfully and it makes me eager to see what (if anything) may happen between them in the future. This is, after all, book one of a series that is so far 6 1/2 books long....