Chapter Text
Author’s Preface
Disclaimer: First and foremost: I do not own Downton Abbey, any characters or situations related to it. If you recognize it, it’s probably not mine. The mistakes, however – those are all mine. Blow Gabriel Blow is part of a larger series of stories: “Lady Edith’s Murder Mysteries”. It was inspired, in no small part, by the Kerry Greenwood series (in case you couldn’t tell). This means a few things for this story/ series:
- One, there are going to be murders and amateur detective work throughout. This work was heavily inspired by the Miss Fisher’s episode The Green Mill Murder. All credit where credit is due, as much as I watch mystery shows and read detective novels, I am not actually good at planning out murders.
- Two, this is not going to be particularly historically accurate. There will be times I will have simply not done my homework. I hope you can suspend your disbelief. I should also note I’m an American therefore not only will my spelling have a distinct lack of ‘u’s but I also have no beta and no one brit-picked this. I apologize in advance if I completely miss the nuances of London, Yorkshire, or the aristocracy. Please let me know how badly I’ve conflated everything, etc.
- Three, there will be sex of all flavors discussed throughout this story. In addition to content of a sexual nature there will be instances of violence (it’s a murder mystery series after all) as well as coarse language throughout. There will also be instances of period (and canon) typical ableism/internalized ableism, homophobia, sexism, racism, xenophobia, and general bad taste. I will try to mark any chapters that are going to be delving into any of these topics (and others) in depth, but just know that throughout there might be instances of any and all of the above.
- Four, there’s going to be a slug of original characters bouncing around alongside some canon favorites. In this vein, and in line with point one, this is a full-blown AU starting more or less after episode four of season three. Chronology might get moved around, people might live, people might die who do/do not in canon, and so forth.
- Five, this is an Andith (aka Sir Anthony Stallan/Lady Edith Crawley) series. Anthony will appear in this story, but he’s not going to get a free pass for the shit he pulled at the wedding. (Part of why this is a series is because they’ve got some work to do to properly unpack their relationship and respective baggage). This being said: I’m a shipper, I loved him, and he’s the endgame. If you don’t like him/this pairing back out now or forever hold your peace.
A brief summary of Cocaine Blues :
Shortly after her wedding-that-wasn’t and the death of her youngest sister, Lady Edith Crawley accepted a position as a columnist at The Sketch magazine. Her new life had barely begun, however, when she found her boss, Michael Gregson, dead. With the help of her new friends – Opal, The Sketch ’s office manager, and Lori, a nurse and Opal’s partner, Edith not only manages to catch Gregson’s killer but also bring down a drug ring and stop an abortionist who ‘solves women’s problems’ by ripping up their bodies.
With Gregson dead and the majority shareholders/financial backers in prison Edith was asked to step into the void. She bought the magazine and is now the editor-in-chief and living her best life in London.