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.
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