"You're cynical. I thought you would be. Can you sneer?""With terrifying effect."Hugh Fontclair finds himself drunk and seriously out of his depth at a gaming hell where he is taken by his feckless cousin to celebrate his engagement. He is rescued by a gentleman of the dandy set named Julian Kestrel and is sent home safe and sound. Thankful, Hugh invites Julian to his family home, a gorgeous mansion & estate that dates back to Elizabethan times, for a house party to celebrate his nuptials.Julian, bemused at the idea of becoming a groomsman to a young man he's just met, nevertheless accepts and finds himself thrust in the middle of a polite family war and old secrets. It seems Hugh's fiancee, a young woman by the name of Maud Craddock is the daughter of a wealthy cit who has some hold over the Fontclairs and is forcing the marriage. To preserve the Fontclair honor, Hugh must marry Maud.For Julian, at first the houseparty is an amusing lark. He is able to observe the various members of the Fonclair family: Serious patriarch Robert; his doting and correct wife, Lady Fontclair; the old war hero uncle the Colonel; his son the lazy, bon vivant Guy; Isabelle, the beautiful, contained orphan cousin; and Lady Tarleton, a dragon of an aunt who is vocal in her disdain of the Craddocks and in her fierce pride in her family past. But soon enough the clashing personalities and viperous duelling between Mr. Craddock and Lady Tarelton are cast in the shade when an unknown woman is murdered in Julian's bedroom.Things turn even grimmer when Julian's valet Dipper is quickly singled out as the likely suspect. Julian decides that he must clear Dipper's name and his own honor by finding out the identity of the the killer.Julian Kestrel is just the type of character I love to read about in a book that is set in a time and place that I enjoy visiting. Set during the Regency period, this book features introduces and new amateur detective, Julian Kestrel. He is an Exquisite. A handsome dandy with polished boots, impeccable clothing and who has some reputation as being a 'Top of the Tree' in London. He is also witty with great conversation. But that is just surface. He is also very intelligent, observant and very honorable. He treats Maud with chivalry and respect when the others at the houseparty either ignore her or treat her with a mild contempt. He is considered a great gun by the younger set and manages to win over the mistrust of the village's Doctor (who dismisses Julian as a coxcombe upon first sight) with his shrewd insights, piercing observations and probing questions of the murder.I like how the story unfolded. Julian wasn't just some bored aristocrat who decided to be nosy and try to solve a murder. His motives for doing it had everything to do with clearing his valet's name and his own when it seemed like they would both be likely scapegoats. They were the outsiders where suspicion would fall on first. Luckily, Julian himself had an airtight alibi and his polite and obviously gentlemanly demeanor wins over the elder Fontclairs and allows him to take a lead in the investigation.The mystery was also satisfying. As it turns out there wasn't just a murder mystery but also other smaller mysteries that involves Julian ferreting out the huge secret at the heart of the whole engagement in the first place and even the identity of the victim. Are these all connected? Possibly. The writing was crisp and lively with a style that was very close to Georgette Heyer's.
I give up. After procrastinating for almost a week, I'm still no nearer articulating my reaction to this book. Instead, I keep recalling Northwest Smith's reaction to transcendental beauty in C. L. Moore's "Black Thirst" — a mind-disorienting sense of vertigo.Cut to the Quick is a Regency murder mystery in the tradition of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction adhering, consciously or unconsciously, to Knox's Rules or Van Dine's Commandments. No twists, no plot holes, no omniscient narrator sleights-of-hand. Just a perfectly crafted murder mystery, sparkling with unexpected delights.Foppish dandy Julian Kestrel is invited to a country house party, where he uses his powers of observation and deduction to solve murder most foul.Like a mephistophelian crossword or a 2,000-piece jigsaw, the narrative is meticulously plotted and carefully constructed. Once the mystery is unveiled, the reader realises that every single hint, every single clue, to the solution was provided earlier in the book.I have no idea how Ms Ross researched this book, but the depth and breadth of the historical detail makes other Regency novels look shabby in comparison. Not only the detail, but the style and register of the prose is utterly in character. It doesn't get much better than this. I've already purchased two other books in the Kestrel series and am hunting around for the fourth.
Do You like book Cut To The Quick (1994)?
My favorite, and the first, of the Julian Kestrel series. I love Regency romances, and this is a wonderful change-up for any Regency reader. Same setting, same characters that we all expect from the period, but a perspective shift to mystery through a dandy's eyes. The male point-of-view and focus on the rituals of male life in the Regency was a wonderful change and sent me back to romances quite refreshed. No, Julian Kestrel isn't a secret agent in disguise. He's just a dandy with more in his head than waistcoats. Because the book contains few romance-landia tropes, it cleared my head very well. I remember stumbling across Kate Ross's obituary one random day, after I'd read her second book, and feeling sad that this series had been cut short with only a few excellent books. If you're growing a little bit (or a lot) tired of the same old Regency formula, this is a change as worthy of reading as Cecilia Grant or Rose Lerner.
—Anna Richland
Julian Kestrel is a Regency dandy with a mysterious past, fine intellect, and empathetic heart. Hugh Fontclair is being forced into marriage with Maud Craddock, but invites Julian as best man after meeting the young man once and in gratitude for saving him from a gaming hell.At Bellegarde, everyone is harboring one large secret, and smaller secrets of their own. (view spoiler)[When an unknown young woman is found murdered in Julian's bed, Julian swears he would suss all these secrets out in order to save his man Dipper from the gallows. The big secret is, Hugh's uncle, the Colonel, revealed military secrets to his French mistress during the war, who then sold it for money. Mr. Craddock found these letters at a pawn shop, and blackmails the Fontclairs into asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. The young woman turns out to be mistress of the Colonel's son, Guy; yet also, the daughter of the French mistress, who had idolized the Colonel and traveled to England to seek out when her mother died. She is killed by Isabelle, the poor-relation, because she is desperately in love with Guy and hated all his women. (hide spoiler)]
—Princessjay
