Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Veronica Speedwell #9
Publisher: Berkley
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 336
Date of Publication: March 12, 2024
My Rating: 5 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why?
Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain—a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?
MY THOUGHTS:
Madame Tussaud's was a wax museum that gained popularity in London in 1835. So when Stoker Templeton-Vane is hired by the Earl of Rosemorran to install a clockwork mechanism to Lord Rosemorran's latest acquisition, an exquisite wax mannequin, Stoker is certain he is up to the job. Meanwhile, Stoker's friend, lover and confidante, Veronica Speedwell, would rather be spending her time in her work as a lepidopterist, as butterflies and their habits is Veronica's area of expertise.
From the outset, Stoker is enamored of the wax figure. He can't get over how much the mannequin resembles his beloved Veronica. However, that is not the only shock that Stoker experiences. As Stoker and Veronica soon discover, the mannequin actually contains the wonderfully preserved body of a young woman. This is definitely no ordinary mannequin. Thus, the deducing couple set out to discover the woman's identity, as sleuthing comes quite natural to both of them.
I have followed the enjoyable Veronica Speedwell series from the very first book, A Curious Beginning. This historical mystery series has been captivating right from the very start. Veronica is a delightful character, and I love how her relationship with Stoker has evolved over the series. I also enjoyed how Veronica's ability to solve crimes has slowly garnered the reluctant respect of the Metropolitan Police.
Another facet of this story is the history behind wax figures, and other surprising Frankenstein like inclusions. Deanna Raybourn skillfully takes each book in this series into different directions, and always entertains her readers. Quite naturally, I can't wait to see what Veronica and Stoker get into next.
Reviewer's note: This is a series that is best read in order.
Many thanks to Berkley and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A sixth-generation native Texan, New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn grew up in San Antonio where she met her college sweetheart. She married him on her graduation day and went on to teach high school English and history. During summer vacation at the age of twenty-three, she wrote her first novel, and after three years as a teacher, Deanna left education to have a baby and pursue writing full-time. Fourteen years and many, many rejections after her first novel, she signed two three-book deals with MIRA Books.
Deanna’s debut novel, Silent in the Grave, published in January 2007. The first in the Silent series, the book introduces Lady Julia Grey, an aristocrat bent on investigating the mysterious death of her husband with the help of the enigmatic private enquiry agent Nicholas Brisbane. From the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to a Gypsy camp on Hampstead Heath, Silent in the Grave deftly captures the lush ambience of Victorian London.
The series continues with the second book, Silent in the Sanctuary (January 2008), a classic English country house murder mystery with a few twists and turns for Brisbane and Lady Julia along the way. Silent on the Moor (March 2009), set in a grim manor house on the Yorkshire moors, is the third adventure for Lady Julia and the mysterious Brisbane.
March 2010 saw a departure from the series with the release of The Dead Travel Fast, a mid-Victorian Gothic thriller that features novelist Theodora Lestrange as she leaves the safety and security of her Edinburgh home for the dark woods and haunted castles of Transylvania. Deanna turns once more to Lady Julia and her companions with Dark Road to Darjeeling (October 2010) which features an exotic setting in the foothills of the Himalayas and the introduction of an arch-villain. The fifth book in the series, The Dark Enquiry, follows the return of Lady Julia and Brisbane to London for their most puzzling adventure yet. The Dark Enquiry hit the New York Times Bestseller list the week before its official release in July 2011. The digital exclusive novella Silent Night, published in November 2012, is a bright Christmas adventure set in Julia’s ancestral home in the Sussex countryside.
Deanna’s next release, A Spear of Summer Grass (May 2013), chronicles the adventures of a scandalous flapper heroine in Africa and the lives she changes along the way. It is listed as one of Goodreads’ most highly anticipated books of 2013 and was preceded by Far in the Wilds, an exclusive digital prequel novella (March 2013). A Spear of Summer Grass received a starred review from Library Journal. Deanna carried on the theme of 1920s adventure with City of Jasmine (2014) and Night of a Thousand Stars (2014), but is delighted to return to Victorian London with the September 2015 hardcover release of A Curious Beginning, the first mystery featuring butterfly-hunting sleuth, Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian sidekick, Stoker. Veronica returned in 2017’s A Perilous Undertaking, and A Treacherous Curse, 2018. A Dangerous Collaboration was released in 2019, and book five, A Murderous Relation, is a March 2020 release.
Deanna’s novel Silent in the Grave won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Mystery. The Lady Julia Grey series has been nominated for several other awards, including an Agatha, a Last Laugh, and two Dilys Winns. Dark Road to Darjeeling was also a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Historical Mystery as well as a Romantic Reviews’ finalist for Best Book of 2010. A Treacherous Curse, the third Veronica Speedwell Mystery, was nominated for the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
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