Absolutely fricking delightful! I'm so glad I picked up this mystery, which features Rosaline Montague, daughter of Romeo and Juliet Montague. Yes, you're thinking of the right people. In the first few pages, Rosie regales us with the “real" ending of the story:
Mom grabbed Dad's knife out of the sheath and stabbed herself. There was a lot of blood, and she fainted, but essentially she stabbed that gold pendant necklace her family buried her with, the knife skidded sideways, and she slashed her own chest. She still has the scar, which, when I'm rolling my eyes, she insists on showing me. What with all that blood, she fainted. When she came to, still very much alive, she crawled back up on the tomb, sobbed again over Dad's body, and got wound up for a second self-stabbing. It was at this point Dad sat up, leaned over, and vomited all over the floor. It's a well-known fact you can never trust an unfamiliar apothecary to deliver a reliable dose of poison.
If a semi-modern voice in a historical mystery disturbs you, I would recommend that you give this a chapter or two. I was captured from the first pages (and that dissonance usually drives me nuts), so I encourage open-mindedness. Rosie is an “ancient” unmarried virgin woman (age 20) who has successfully distracted three fiancés with more suitable matches. She likes living at home with her family. Until Romeo reluctantly betroths her to Duke Stephano, who is suspected of poisoning three previous spouses.
Of course, it is the day of the betrothal party that Rosie falls madly in love with Lysander, a young man who has scaled the Montague garden wall to woo her. Her reputation is saved by Prince Escalus, ruler of Verona. She will need his support again when the Duke is discovered stabbed to death in the garden. Can Rosie clear her name, salvage her reputation, and claim her One True Love?
Dodd plays skillfully with the Romeo and Juliet story. What would they be like as older adults? How would they deal with a house full of children? How would their eldest child, Rosaline, react to the uber-romantic saga of her parents' love story? By becoming ultra rational and organized, that's how! Usually, a humorous conceit like this wears thin as the book progresses, but I never tired of Dodd's approach. Her humor was right on the money, especially as Rosie completely overlooks her own attractiveness and misinterprets the actions of the men around her.
So, although Rosie is surprised by the ending, the reader is not. It is charming! I note that this is first in a series and I can hardly wait to see what this Daughter of Montague gets up to next.
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