Silent In The Grave
by Deanna Raybourn
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Book Reviews of Silent In The Grave
Book Review: Not my usual fare, but I liked it, surprisingly!
Summary: 4 Stars
I initially bought the sequel to this, Silent in the Sanctuary, when I couldn't resist the beautiful cover. I knew it wasn't the first book but it didn't sound as if I really needed the first one to appreciate the second. I changed my mind when I started reading since it referred back often enough to the events in Silent in the Grave to make me want to read it first. Even though I knew it was a romance-flavored mystery, which I normally loathe, I took a chance because I am so enamored of the first-person narration specifically in a Victorian setting, a la Wilkie Collins and Charlotte Bronte. I downloaded it to my e-reader and was not disappointed.
Lady Julia Grey is the storyteller, and the story begins with the death of her sickly husband, Edward, who dies young of the same heart condition that has killed off other members of his family. He and Julia had been friends since they were children, but Julia comes to feel that she possibly made a mistake in marrying Edward, realizing that a childhood friend doesn't always make the best husband. She never suspects that his death was anything but natural, however, until the requisitely hot but unpleasantly-mannered Nicholas Brisbane approaches her with the revelation that Edward had feared for his life in his last days, and he and Julia embark on a very testy partnership to root out a murderer.
Julia's narrative is refreshingly personable and believable, and Raybourn's knowledge of Victorian-era details is impressive. I'm frankly shocked at myself for enjoying this book so much because I generally loathe anything with a romantic tinge. Granted romance is not the primary theme, but it's in there. Except for a few eye-rolling moments, though, Raybourn does an admirable job of making it low-key enough to be not only tolerable for us romance-haters, but even enjoyable. I was rather hot for Nicholas myself by the end of it! (haha), although I usually don't care for those rude, brooding Heathcliff-type men other women seem so enamored of.
After finishing this I went immediately back to the sequel I'd initially started with, Silent in the Sanctuary, which I also enjoyed.
Book Review: Intriguing Tale, Literary Lightweight
Summary: 3 Stars
Deanna Raybourn's debut Victorian mystery "Silent in the Grave" begins during a dinner party at the Grey mansion in London. as a young baronet, Edward Grey, writhes in fatal convulsions. Over his dead body, Edward's tepidly grief stricken widow, Lady Julia Grey, meets a stranger - swarthy, enigmatic `private inquiry agent' Nicholas Brisbane, in attendance at the behest of Lord Grey who feared he was in mortal danger. Despite the doctor's assurances that Edward succumbed to the family's genetically weak heart, Brisbane offers Lady Grey evidence that her husband was indeed murdered. But how, why and by whom?
With grave reservations on both sides, Brisbane and Julia lock horns and repressed libidos in a highly charged investigation to discover the truth. From a literary point of view "Silent in the Grave" is decidedly lightweight. But Raybourn spins such an intriguing and unorthodox tale, you might want to try her lighthearted romp with Victorian convention.
Perhaps it's a deliberate choice that her main characters lean to stereotype: Lady Julia Grey is the high born society lady engaged in a tug of war between Victorian reserve and personal daring. Brisbane, the intensely private, migraine-plagued and brooding detective, invokes echoes of Sherlock Holmes, complete with his own faithful factotum, Monk, and a penchant for the violin.
The relationship between the two seems a deliberate riff on Victorian parlor personalities: Brisbane's "hypnotic, storm black eyes" and bruising kisses tend to generate more humor than heat, at least in this reader. Oddly, it is often her minor characters - Julia's unconventional family members and an eclectic house staff with their mysterious pasts and unpredictable peccadilloes, who feel more authentic.
Though I guessed the identity of the murderer, I was way off base on the motive. And the killer's modus operandi is by far the most salacious, imaginative, and bizarre that I have ever encountered in a mystery!
I would give it 3 and a half stars if that were possible...
Book Review: pleasant surprise
Summary: 4 Stars
Picked it up, expecting it to be a cheezy romance novel to while away 20-25 min. waiting at Walgreen's. While, yes, a romance develops after the death of the heroine's husband on p. 3., it wasn't a Regency-era bodice ripper, it was a rather witty murder mystery set in 1880, England.
It is very difficult to write well in the first person. Raybourn pulls it off very nicely. It's first person from the same person all the way through. The most enjoyable part was simply the heroine's style of explaining this part of her life. Desperately waiting for someone else in the family to drop dead so that her aunt will leave her alone and go haunt the next bereaved widow.
The murder in question is the husband, who is written off as 'natural causes'. Despite a plea from a business associate of her dead spouse about the un-naturalness of it, Julia blows him off, dreading the impending year of 'mourning'. Obviously, she comes around, and the rest of the novel is the investigation into the death/murder. It is almost completely based upon deduction and implied evidence, since they can't very well exhume the body.
The only thing that was really disjointed, and possibly just too-21 Century, is the social mores and attitudes of the main characters. Would a young woman really be so blase to discover her older sister's "companion" is actually her live-in (female) lover? Were condoms really so accessible? For all I know, the depiction is accurate - it just doesn't seem like it - but, as this is the backdrop of the story, it wasn't big problem.
Do they fall in love? Will it be fulfilled or leave them in their separate social castes? Do they find the murderer, and how in the world did the man drop dead so fast?
All in all, a pleasant afternoon's light reading with much more intellectual activity than "Highlander's Bride" or some such rot with gross looking long-haired, bald-chested men on the book cover.
I'm very much looking forward to her 2nd book, which I am pleased to note is already on the shelves.
Book Review: Engaging read with delightful characters...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been in search of a new genre for a while now...
I have enjoyed the classics, suspence, romance and other mysteries, especially Anne Perry. Open to any new author, I ran across Deanna Raybourn. It took me some time to finally pick it up and then to finally become engrossed in the story itself. I had picked it out with the lovely cover in mind and read the first page and put it down. This, only because I am not the greatest fan of narrative in the first person. Finally, one day on my lunch break, I picked it up again and have never looked back...
In fact, a month later, I am still a little sad for having finished all that Deanna Raybourn has had published. But I digress...
The story of Silent in the Grave centers around a Victorian Lady and how she discovers her own inner strength while solving the mystery of the untimely (though not unexpected) death of her husband. Lady Julia is a typical Victorian woman as she grieves for her husband's death. One year into life without him, she comes to discover that his demise may have been at the hands of a human nature. In desperation, she seeks out the personal inspector her dead husband hired to help identify the author of threatening notes left on his life, beginning some time before his death. Along the way, she comes to realize her life was not the conventional Victorian facade she originally believed it to be. This is done with the help of the somewhat, but not completely predictable hero, Nicholas Brisbane (said hired inspector). His character is typical in the sense that he is the typical Victorian anti hero. Coming from possible Gypsy stock and therefore, dark, mysterious and brooding, he is every woman's dream. What I adore about his character is his real and idiosyncratic. I am usually drawn to more the solid, quiet and persevering type, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was so drawn into this character.
But what I truly enjoyed about this narrative was the growth of an individual and discovery of one's true self and enjoyments in Lady Julia.
Book Review: Complex and intriguing....
Summary: 5 Stars
Sir Edward Grey has been sickly for a long time so it is not unexpected when he dies. What is unexpected is the suggestion by Nicholas Brisbane that Edward's death was actually murder. Lady Julia Grey refuses to believe him until evidence surfaces that makes her wonder if Nicholas may be right. How will Julia handle the ramifications of the ensuing investigation? Is Nicholas to be trusted? And what will she learn along the way?
Deanna Raybourn weaves a complex but very intriguing tale in SILENT IN THE GRAVE. Little clues are sprinkled throughout the storyline as the fiendishly clever plot unfolds. Some of the moments are so subtle that it is only later that you have those "ah ha" moments when all the pieces begin fitting neatly together.
The structure of SILENT IN THE GRAVE itself is very well done. Each chapter starts with a quote that in retrospect adds insight to the chapter. The opening lines are some of the catchiest I've ever read, as they guaranteed I would buy a book completely outside my normal genre. Deanna Raybourn also finishes each chapter in a manner that practically begs the reader to keep going; I lost an awful lot of sleep reading this one as there were moments I just couldn't stop, even as my poor eyelids were shutting.
Seeing the Victorian Age from Julia's perspective was both informative and emotional. Her family is known for its outrageousness, but she has remained calm and unadventurous... until now. Seeing her awaken to her own potential as well as the unfairness of the culture in which she lives is enlightening. Julia will see firsthand how the racism and class boundaries that exist during this time period affect real people.
SILENT IN THE GRAVE is a complex but very emotional and thought provoking read! Deanna Raybourn has only whetted my appetite for more books featuring Julia and Nicholas and I look forward to reading her next book, SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY.
COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES