Miss Tonks Turns to Crime

Marion Chesney knows the exact recipe for writing entertaining novels. Start with an intricate plot and thrown in humor and jeopardy. Add a dose of romance. Set it all in a fine atmosphere, filled with interesting and authentic details. Invent diverse characters, filled with contradictions. It's as simple as that. The result is this book--and a good many others by Ms. Chesney. In most novels I read and like, it is the plot or the atmosphere or the characters that dominate--but not in a Chesney book. The elements are so nicely balanced and intertwined that they become one. Few novelists can accomplish that. Timid Miss Tonks, a poor relation, must steal something valuable to save the hotel she has with others, a hotel called the Poor Relations, oddly enough. As a highwayman (were there highwaywomen?) she is a failure, but is rescued in strange fashion, setting off a bizarre series of events. Miss Tonks' niece, Cassandra, while no beauty is a charming and frank young woman whose future seems ruined when she joins her aunt in London. All this is set in the Regency, i.e., the early nineteenth century when Bonaparte threatened Europe and when George III had gone so mad that a regent ruled England. I was fascinated by the atmospheric details of London during the period, by the prejudices, the caste system, even by the chamber pot under the bed and who was supposed to carry it out in the morning. The book is like a journey back in time--and I hated to see it end.

Of all Marion Chesney's books, I like the Poor Relation series the best. And out of all Poor Relation books, I like this second book the best. I practically Laugh out loud. I love her dry sense of humor, funny plots, and wits. I couldn't put it down.

All of the Chesney books that I've read have been great. They are funny and actually quite informative about England's regency period. This was no exception.