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melodicfate 's review for:
Silent in the Grave
by Deanna Raybourn
4.5 stars.
Why did I never know that Victorian-set mysteries were a thing? Specifically ones that exclusively followed the heroine’s point of view, in first-person? It’s like everything I love in urban fantasy minus the paranormal, plus everything I love in historical romance minus a lot of the romance. Note that I didn’t say “minus the romance”, I’m hoping for more of that. Soon. But for now, I NEED the next book! As fast as I can get to it!
Lady Julia. What to say about our heroine? Well, she grew a lot just in this first book. She started out quiet and just wanting a normal life, away from the craziness of her family. But throughout this story, Julia ended up investigating her husband’s death, and that led to some major changes on her part. She started caring less of what society would think of her actions, and began considering her relationship with servants more. Plus, Julia was simply intelligent and relatable. She only had a few dumb moments, but I could sort of understand them. I just generally liked her, and for the most part I would have acted in the same ways she did.
There were plenty of side characters. I went through so many changes regarding my feelings for many of them, and I just think that was great skill on Deanna Raybourn’s part. I hardly ever change my views on people. Firstly, there was Val. Val was Julia’s younger brother. I came to view him as a great person and brother, though I did have my doubts at times. I liked Portia, Julia’s outgoing sister as well. I really liked that Portia’s partner was a woman. Another great character was Fleur. She was so charming and nice, I thought she stole all of the scenes in which she was featured. Simon, the cousin of Julia’s dead husband, was certainly a deeper character than I thought. My views on him vary widely from the beginning of the book to the end. I really hated Dr. Griggs who represented the prejudiced, sexist men of the time. And I loved Dr. Bent for his open mind. Lastly in this long list is Mr. Brisbane. I LOVe my mysterious characters. And boy was he ever!!! An investigator of many talents and languages, I was desperate to know more. And even now that I do know more of his character and past? Well, I’m still not satisfied.
This story was engaging from beginning to end. There was the mystery of Julia’s husband’s death. Julia herself went through a great deal of changes. Plus, there was all the crazy antics of her very large family, some of whom we still need to meet. Finally, Julia found out some things about her late husband that were a bit different from the man she thought she knew. The writing style was extremely well-done. I always had to read just one more chapter. My feelings on characters changed drastically, and I always wanted to know more.
Mystery has never been a favorite genre for me. But given my current love of all things historical, and the fact that I love series that follow one main character, of course I was going to check this out!! And I’m SO glad I did! Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t figure out who the villain was until Julia did. Yes, I suspected many people. But the author was really, really clever about what she put in to this book. I love failing to guess who the bad guy is in stories, and this story was just a great chance for me to be just as confused as the narrator. I just thought it was all great, in general. Maybe it was a bit long, but that’s a minor drawback that I hardly even noticed. I highly recommend this book if you like mystery even a little, and if you love great heroines and the Victorian era.
Why did I never know that Victorian-set mysteries were a thing? Specifically ones that exclusively followed the heroine’s point of view, in first-person? It’s like everything I love in urban fantasy minus the paranormal, plus everything I love in historical romance minus a lot of the romance. Note that I didn’t say “minus the romance”, I’m hoping for more of that. Soon. But for now, I NEED the next book! As fast as I can get to it!
Lady Julia. What to say about our heroine? Well, she grew a lot just in this first book. She started out quiet and just wanting a normal life, away from the craziness of her family. But throughout this story, Julia ended up investigating her husband’s death, and that led to some major changes on her part. She started caring less of what society would think of her actions, and began considering her relationship with servants more. Plus, Julia was simply intelligent and relatable. She only had a few dumb moments, but I could sort of understand them. I just generally liked her, and for the most part I would have acted in the same ways she did.
There were plenty of side characters. I went through so many changes regarding my feelings for many of them, and I just think that was great skill on Deanna Raybourn’s part. I hardly ever change my views on people. Firstly, there was Val. Val was Julia’s younger brother. I came to view him as a great person and brother, though I did have my doubts at times. I liked Portia, Julia’s outgoing sister as well. I really liked that Portia’s partner was a woman. Another great character was Fleur. She was so charming and nice, I thought she stole all of the scenes in which she was featured. Simon, the cousin of Julia’s dead husband, was certainly a deeper character than I thought. My views on him vary widely from the beginning of the book to the end. I really hated Dr. Griggs who represented the prejudiced, sexist men of the time. And I loved Dr. Bent for his open mind. Lastly in this long list is Mr. Brisbane. I LOVe my mysterious characters. And boy was he ever!!! An investigator of many talents and languages, I was desperate to know more. And even now that I do know more of his character and past? Well, I’m still not satisfied.
This story was engaging from beginning to end. There was the mystery of Julia’s husband’s death. Julia herself went through a great deal of changes. Plus, there was all the crazy antics of her very large family, some of whom we still need to meet. Finally, Julia found out some things about her late husband that were a bit different from the man she thought she knew. The writing style was extremely well-done. I always had to read just one more chapter. My feelings on characters changed drastically, and I always wanted to know more.
Mystery has never been a favorite genre for me. But given my current love of all things historical, and the fact that I love series that follow one main character, of course I was going to check this out!! And I’m SO glad I did! Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t figure out who the villain was until Julia did. Yes, I suspected many people. But the author was really, really clever about what she put in to this book. I love failing to guess who the bad guy is in stories, and this story was just a great chance for me to be just as confused as the narrator. I just thought it was all great, in general. Maybe it was a bit long, but that’s a minor drawback that I hardly even noticed. I highly recommend this book if you like mystery even a little, and if you love great heroines and the Victorian era.