Miss Tonks turns to crime Book

Is it a bad thing to rally around a main character whose purpose is to steal from her sister ?
The Poor Relation Collection, the 40 something yr old downtrodden and bullied spinster Leticia Tonks was cheated out of her inheritance by her wicked older sister Honoria Blessop. I know it doesn't justify theft but Honoria is a vicious obese hagwitch, who forced Leticia to live in genteel poverty while her fat ass luxuriated in her ill gotten gains. I think Leticia's plan is too long in coming. But, I didn't enjoy this as much as Lady Fortescue Steps Out. Leticia started out as a scaredy cat, mild mannered woman who was afraid of her own shadow. She decided to dress up as a highwayman, stop Honoria's coach and steal her sister's diamond necklace and tiara. That plan was foiled initially because she ended up hijacking the wrong coach ! Lord Eston, whose coach she'd hijacked, ended up helping her to rob Honoria because he found it all amusing and adventurous, plus he disliked Honoria. Lord Eston is also the romantic hero of this installment and he is intrigued by Leticia's niece Cassandra. That first part was delightful because Cassandra thinks that her bright red hair and freckles mean that a hunky guy like Lord E will never take her seriously, but he finds her unconventional looks and wicked sense of humour charming. He even kisses her when he stops her mother's coach and robs it ! He's in disguise so Cassandra doesn't recognize him. That doesn't stop the young woman from becoming totally infatuated with her charming highwayman.

I thought everything was going great up to this point because the villain Honoria was left to make ugly crybaby faces over the loss of her diamonds while her daughter Cassandra runs off to London with aunt Leticia. Lord E even steps in and plays the dashing romantic H again when he helps these 2 ladies out along the way to London. He showed all signs of becoming besotted with Cassandra:


How dark and cold the country was in winter. The lights of London beckoned'and a warm sweet pair of lips and a snub nose covered in freckles. He began to whistle as he went home to pack.

M. C. Beaton. Miss Tonks Turns to Crime (Kindle Locations 507-508). RosettaBooks. Kindle Edition.

This is Cassandra:



This is Lord Eston:



This is Leticia Tonks:



Like I said, everything was going really well, until the author threw in the crappiest shitfest of a plot twist. Lord E went from admiring the charming and quirky Cassandra to becoming instantly infatuated with a conventionally beautiful, spoilt, obnoxious, lisping, air headed, materialistic and dumb debutante called Amanda Boyle:


Lord Eston had forgotten all his lectures on love to Miss Cassandra Blessop. He was enchanted with Amanda Boyle and had been from the minute he set eyes on her.

M. C. Beaton. Miss Tonks Turns to Crime (Kindle Locations 920-921). RosettaBooks. Kindle Edition.

That just about ruined the romantic storyline for me and if this was purely a romance novel then I would rate it with just one star. Fortunately, this is not a pure romance novel so I was able to continue my enjoyment of the other funny aspects of Marion Chesney's tale. Lord Eston didn't even know, until a friend told him, that Amanda's father Sir Andrew Boyle was a con artist who concocted all sorts of nefarious schemes which he used to defraud others. Amanda didn't even let Lord E kiss her because she was kinda frigid and was only interested in becoming a countess. Lord E was a dumbass big patsy who even proposed marriage to Amanda even though he was more attracted to Cassandra. But that's enough about them because the other part of the story was far more entertaining. Sir Phillip and the other poor relations who owned the "Poor Relations Hotel" were soon faced with some serious competition from a new hotel called Tupples. The owner of Tupples, Mr. Donnard, was also a con artist who used a lot of underhanded schemes to defeat his competitors. Nonetheless, the poor relations were able to defuse Monsieur Donnard by sending Leticia and Cassandra to do some undercover work; the 2 ladies went in disguise as minor Hungarian royalty.

This storyline saved the novel because of the following key highlights:

1. Mr Bonnard gets Sir Andrew Boyle to plant a dead rat in the main course meal of "The Poor Relations" hotel restaurant, but is stopped by the wily Sir Phillip; the latter not only replaces the dead rat in Sir Andrew's coat pocket with a biting rat trap that almost breaks Sir A's fingers but also plants head lice on Sir A, his wife, Amanda and even Lord Eston ! I couldn't stop laughing during the scene when Amanda threw herself on the floor and starting to itch all over like a madwoman.

2. Sir Phillip arranges for a dead cat to be baked into the middle of a huge dessert cake in Tupples' hotel restaurant. ( No cats were killed. Sir P found a cat corpse ).

3. Monsieur Bonnard kidnaps Cassandra when he finds out that she had been doing undercover work for the poor relations, but Lord E saves her.

4. A rich merchant called Mr. Davenport falls in love with Amanda and out cons her father by sending him off to Jamaica.

5. Lord E pretends to be a bankrupt, lecherous sex maniac so that Amanda will jilt him. This leads to his reconciliation with Cassandra. The snobbish Amanda still ends up married to the rich Mr. Davenport so that irritated the F out of me. I wanted her and her family to end up as bankrupt outcasts because that's what they deserved.

I would've rated this higher if the romantic storyline had been better. Cassandra was a nice heroine but Lord E was a dumb jackass who was temporarily fooled by Amanda's beautiful face. I did find the overall story amusing though and Sir Phillip continues to be my fav character among the poor relations. He's mean, wicked, loves to steal and say nasty things to everybody but he's the resident scene stealer. That's why I ended up postponing my reading of the 3rd installment in the series and jumped on to his novel Sir Philip's Folly. That novel turned out to be my fav among all 6 in The Poor Relation Collection.