Silence in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn

This is the second in the series following  Silent in the Grave.  Raybourn's sophomore book continues in the aftermath of the first.  Lady Julia Grey is recuperating in Italy with two of her brothers when their father summons them all home for Christmas at the family estate in England.  During an innocent games of sardines, a man is found dead in the chapel, with one of Julia's cousins, Lucy, standing above him with a bloody candelabra.

I liked this book.  I like Raybourn's style of writing.  I feel like a better author could have tackled this same plot in a much more convincing manner.  Most of Julia's family were staying at the house (a former Abbey so its massive), her love interest from book one with his new fiance, her poor distant cousins Lucy and Emma, Lucy's new fiance, his cousin, and the new pastor in the nearby village.  The night of the murder a huge snowstorm trapped everyone in the family in the Abbey for next few days, creating an island with one murderer on it, and a dead body stored in the larder, in the middle of pastoral England.  However, it was easy to assume that no one in Julia's immediate family would have been the murderer, which immediately eliminated quite a bit of the household.  Despite the large gathering, only a few people could possibly have been viable suspects.

In the middle of the book, a second crime is committed, which brings to light the true story behind Brisbane and his new fiance, and why they are staying with Julia's family.  This angle essentially fell into the story from nowhere.  Usually when surprises happen mid-plot, there were clues leading up the event if you were reading close enough to catch them.  That didn't happen here.

All that being said, I still enjoyed the book.  Julia's family is eccentric, but instead of shunning them, the wayward family members are embraced.

I already downloaded book 3 in the series.  Reading these in a row makes me feel like I'm falling into Victorian England.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

This book (or author, or series) came to my attention while perusing through Tasha Alexander's books on amazon.  At Christmas my mother asked for a list of books I wanted.  After reading through the description of this book, I added it to my list since it seemed like something I'd like.

And like it I did.  Despite the 435 pages, I started it Saturday and finished it Sunday.  Lady Julia Grey is a recent widow.  Her husband, her childhood sweetheart, collapsed and died in the midst of a dinner party.  Suffering from a heart ailment for most of his life, nobody really questioned his death, including his widow.  When a man approached Julia, telling her her husband had paid him to discover who had been sending him death threats, Julia rudely dismisses him.  Nearly a year into her mourning, Julia discovers a death threat logged in the desk drawer of her late husband.  Finally believing his death might be from something other then natural causes, Julia humbly approaches the private investigator, Nicholas Brisbane, with the note.  And so begins an interesting mystery story set in Victorian England.

I spent a good portion of the book comparing Deanna Raybourn to Tasha Alexander, which I didn't think was fair and I won't do here.  Both authors are very talented, creating interesting plots and characters that I really enjoy.

Despite the prudishness of Victorian England (at least literary), this book delved a bit into prostitution, abortion, and Gypsies.   The culprit actually surprised me, which really pleased me.  I hate it when I'm 30 pages into a detective/mystery story and already know who did it!

And since I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic, I'm interested in the attraction story between Brisbane and Julia which may or may not be developing.  Julia's eccentric family is also highly entertaining.

I downloaded the next book in the series on my Kindle, since I just couldn't wait to read the next one.

Hunger Games

Lately I've been weary about jumping on the bandwagon with popular book series. I think having been horrified by how horrible the Twilight series was that I stopped listening to what the popular media has to say about books and just started focusing on books that I thought I would enjoy, regardless of how popular they were to the general population.

Then Hunger Games came out.  I ended up purchasing the book at the San Diego airport after a rave recommendation of a friend.  When I returned home, the book ended up on my stack of books to read, but I never opened it.  Then the movie was released, and a coworker asked me to go see it with her when we travel for work in a couple weeks.  I was finally going to have to actually read this thing.

Sometimes, the popular media is right.  I thought Hunger Games was awesome.  Katniss is smart, clever, and way more awesome than she thinks she is.  The love story with Peeta was sweet.  I love how Katniss is so modest about herself.  There's no pretense with her.

I think buried somewhere in the book Suzanne Collins is making a statement about our world today.  Katniss's horrified reaction to finding out how much food and services are available to her at the touch of a button sounds suspiciously like a condemnation of the excess of the First World.

I can't wait to read the second and third books!

books I'm reading

It's been awhile!  I vacationed in Canada, just returning home yesterday.  I didn't really get a chance to read while I was there, so I'm a bit behind.

Anna Karenina.  I'm loving this book.  It's taking awhile to get through, but instead of trying to rush it the way I've done for some others on the The List, I'm trying to just take it slowly and enjoy it.  I don't anticipate finishing it anytime soon, but I believe it will be worth the wait.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  After visiting Paris in February, I couldn't wait to return home and start reading this book.  It's my first Victor Hugo.  I'm not enjoying it the way I thought I would.  I realize some of it might be a poor translation, but I find Hugo to be overly verbose.  He segues off to random tangents and by the time he gets back to where he left off in the plot, I've forgotten what was going on.

Hunger Games.  I bought my copy at the airport in San Diego and finally picked it up.  So far I'm loving it.  It's an easy read, the characters and engaging, and the story actually gets my adrenaline going.