Reviews with content warning for Death - Death at the Manor

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Death at the Manor by Katharine Schellman

4 reviews

flaminia_percuriosa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

SO GOOD AAAH! How are all these books so good? How did I not get into them until AFTER the author visited the bookstore less than 10 min from my house? RIP me, but I'm also pleased as punch that this is the first book where I guessed the murderer halfway thru. Usually I'm reading too fast to try (oops) but I made just stop and pay attention. I wasn't quite as keen on this book at the very start, but it picked up halfway thru and got really good. Most satisfying ending ... Well, second-most! Of the year. (Can't quite overshadow "This Poison Heart", but equal to it.)

The one part with LGBTQ+ rep was awkward for me – why was Lily THAT upset? – it seemed more of a way to squeeze the detail about the aunts being lesbian in, and for a series that is usually does such a good job with historical accuracy, it read as terribly modern. I mean didn't we all know the aunts were lesbian 2 seconds into their very first description multiple books ago? I've read just enough about sapphics back in the day that the way they talked about the topic felt far too contemporary, but of course, it was written for a modern audience... And now I'm curious to see if I can find any definitely sapphic stuff from the era to compare, I mean I know about the BBC show so maybe people WERE that explicit! I admire the author for her attempts to add diversity, since the earlier books occasionally felt VERY straight lol.

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This isn't my favorite in the Lily Adler Mysteries series. I listened to the audiobook, so apologies if I spell any names wrong in this review. Lily was off her game here, she was clearly dealing with some internal struggles, so I feel like the choices she made could be explained by that, but that doesn't mean I liked them.

I don't love that she spent the night with Mr. Spencer, and I'm glad it was just a "fade to black" very vague implication, but I probably feel the same way Ofelia does about it and understand that she's a grown woman and can have her impulsive fun if she wants. It felt out of character based on what we've seen of her, but she's in new territory emotionally and finding her footing as a widow out of mourning. It was much harder for me to accept her snapping so harshly at Ophelia. It definitely made it clear that Lily was Not Herself.

I really missed the presence of Captain Jack and Bow Street constable Simon Page, especially after we got some of Mr. Page's perspective in the last book that I sincerely enjoyed. I also missed Lily's staff and the young boy that Captain Jack hired in the first book. I did love meeting her Aunts and getting some perspective chapters from Ofelia. One thing I really like about this series is how much diversity it includes and how it shows that lots of different people existed in this time period just going about their normal lives. In my opinion, the new family and staff that we meet for the murder were not as interesting or sympathetic as the past families and murder victims had been, and I thought the investigation aspect wasn't as strong. It felt like they were running around in circles with how many times we had to revisit people and scenes. I assumed from the start that it was one of two characters, and I ended up being right but not really happy about it.

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emmas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This was a really excellent mystery set in regency England and with a side of romance. I loved traveling to the countryside with Lily Adler and the cast of friends and aunts, and the murder mystery kept me guessing right up until the very end!! I was also happy to see representation of queer people and people of color (in multiple social classes) in this regency setting!!!

Although this is part of a series, I haven’t read the other books and would say this can definitely stand alone (although I am adding them to my TBR!).

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havenraven23's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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