Kim’s Guest Review of A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell Mystery, Book 1) by Deanna Raybourn
Historical Mystery published by NAL 1 Sep 15
For fans of the Lady Julia Grey books, Deanna Raybourn has launched a new historical mystery series set in Victorian England. Sadly for Lady Julia Grey fans, A Curious Beginning doesn’t live up to the magic of the Julia Grey-Nicholas Brisbane pairing. While competently written, A Curious Beginning follows a rather predictable path.
Veronica Speedwell was born illegitimate and she’s been raised by two women posing as her aunts. They never discussed the details of her birth and Veronica has shown little curiosity during the first 24 years of her life.
Veronica chafes at her staid and itinerant upbringing and her love of butterflies gives her an escape. She eventually becomes a noted lepidopterist whose success in her field allows her to fund her own expeditions. With no interest in marriage, Veronica indulges in the occasional dalliance. She is adamant that any affairs must be on foreign shores and he can’t be an Englishman.
As the story opens, London is preparing for the Queen’s golden jubilee. Veronica returns home to nurse her remaining “aunt” in her final days. Shortly after the funeral, Veronica happens upon a burglar in her aunt’s cottage. She’s about to be kidnapped when a stranger comes to the rescue. Baron von Stauffenbach has actually been looking for Veronica, because he has information about her mother. He insists she is in grave danger and offers to escort Veronica to London.
The baron promises to tell her more in due course and leaves Veronica with his trusted friend, Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane. Stoker is a natural historian and taxidermist. At their first introduction, he shows an irascible temperament and a reluctance to get involved. His own past is shrouded in secrecy, but the reader soon gleans that something tragic occurred when he was on an expedition in the Amazon. When the baron is found murdered and Stoker is cast as the prime suspect, Stoker and Veronica go on the run together. Trying to solve the mystery of Veronica’s past and clear Stoker’s name brings them unwanted attention from Scotland Yard and Irish insurrectionists. Before all is resolved, the secret of Veronica’s past will strike at the very heart of the monarchy.
This is a well-written book, but it missed the mark for me. Veronica Speedwell is an unconventional heroine with a rather cavalier attitude about her reputation. Although the Victorian Era was less repressed then the Regency Era, Veronica’s modern outlook is still a stretch. Also, Veronica is not a very easy character to like. She’s confrontational and likes to shock people with her pronouncements. The resolution of the mystery is another sticking point. It just doesn’t work for me, being a little too pat and strained credulity.
A Curious Beginning is an inauspicious start to Ms. Raybourn’s ne:w series, but hopefully, in the next book, Stoker’s secrets will prove more enticing than Veronica’s.
G
rade: C+
Summary:
In her thrilling new series, the New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey mysteries, returns once more to Victorian England…and introduces intrepid adventuress Veronica Speedwell.
As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker—a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth.
Read an excerpt.
