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So it turns out Romeo and Juliet didn’t actually die. In fact, 9 months after they were married, they had their first daughter, whom they named Rosaline. Rosie is now nearing the ancient age of 20 and has managed to get herself out of several engagements by making love matches for her suitors with other women.
But Rosie is facing a particularly unpleasant situation now: a few days after the suspicious death of his third wife, the “debaucher” Duke Stephano has requested her hand in marriage. Her parents are telling her there’s no getting out of it. Then the evening of their engagement party, Rosie herself finds the duke dead, a dagger sticking out of his chest.
Plenty of people in Verona had motive to kill him, and unfortunately that includes Rosie. She didn’t want to be the fourth wife to die soon after marriage to him. So she sets out to solve the murder. She starts to interview people and do all the things a good investigator would.
Even as she gets to sleuthing, love finally makes itself known to her, making her life more complicated than she had imagined.
A Daughter of Fair Verona is a fun take on the classic story of Romeo and Juliet, now showing the famous lovers as parents of seven and not the main characters of the book. I really enjoyed the first-person narration of Rosie. She’s a feisty one, with a sardonic voice and a determination to live her life on her own terms. Something about that voice reminded me a bit of the chemistry-loving young Flavia de Luce, the narrator of Alan Bradley’s wonderful historical-fiction mysteries.
The mystery was perfectly satisfactory but, as with most books like this, it’s not really all about the whodunit. It’s the style. And I really enjoyed the style. More books are forthcoming, which is welcome.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes about 15 instances of moderate profanity, about 5 uses of mild language, and not quite 10 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content is frequent and generally is the main character and others talking about sex. It can occasionally get bawdy, giving the book a moderate rather than just a mild rating. But there are no scenes. Violence includes murders by various methods, with some gory details, and sword fighting.
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