Silent in the Grave
by Deanna Raybourn
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Book Summary Information
Author: Deanna RaybournEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-01-01
ISBN: 0778328171
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Mira
Book Reviews of Silent in the Grave
Book Review: A slowly unraveling mystery. I was not emotionally drawn in. The heroine makes mistakes and jumps to false conclusions.
Summary: 2 Stars
STORY BRIEF:
Edward and Julia had been married for five years when Edward dies from a genetically weak heart. Nicholas is "a detective of sorts, a private inquiry agent." After the funeral Nicholas tells Julia that Edward hired him before he died because Edward feared someone was planning to murder him. Julia doesn't believe Nicholas. She thinks Nicholas wants to be hired to earn some money. She insults him and tells him to leave. A year later Julia discovers a threatening note to Edward and realizes she must investigate his death for her own peace of mind. She asks Nicholas to help her.
There are sequels to this book in which Julia and Nicholas investigate other crimes.
GENRE DEBATE: Is this Mystery or is this Romance?
Several Amazon reviewers who are mystery fans rated this poorly claiming it had too much romance. I am a romance fan, and I find it "not romance." My definition of romance includes a developing romantic relationship with the couple together at the end. In this story, an odd working relationship develops but not a romance. And they are not together at the end. One mystery fan, Lisa Rae, said the following "In Victorian mysteries the heroine rarely spends so much time describing and mentally lingering over the hero's physical attributes -- glimpses of open shirts, dark chest hairs, muscles, etc. The author clearly intended to give sexual tension and romantic relationships place over mystery development. That puts (it) firmly in the romance genre." To me, the mental lingering was incidental, and there wasn't enough sexual tension and relationship development to call it romance.
Another reviewer A. Anderson said "This is a romance in the style of boy meets girl, boy and girl can't stand each other, boy and girl are thrown together through circumstances and find themselves drawn to each other, boy has mysterious past, girl leaps to unfounded conclusions left, right and center, boy and girl are separated, and girl pines." OK there is some of that, but they weren't drawn to each other enough to be called a romance. "Girl leaps to unfounded conclusions" is a character type, not a genre type. Sure she exists in some romances, but I don't like that type of romance. Also, in this story the girl did not pine for him out of love. She was pining for answers. She was impatient to take action. So apparently, this book does not work for mystery fans nor romance fans.
However, for readers like Carrie Gwaltney on Goodreads it's a perfect blend. She states in her review "This is exactly the kind of novel I was looking for when I realized I wanted a little romance mixed with my steady diet of mystery and fantasy stories."
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The story is told in first person by Julia. As she investigates Edward's death, she learns many things about Edward, other family members, acquaintances, the hired help, and Nicholas. By the time everything was revealed I found it an interesting mix of characters with interesting motivations and some scandalous activities. But the process of getting to the end was not as enjoyable as I had hoped. It was slow reading. I was not emotionally drawn to the characters. There was no romantic relationship which is an easy way for an author to get me emotionally involved, but that wasn't here. I would have liked seeing more of Nicholas' thinking and feelings which apparently couldn't be done due to first person Julia. I also wanted more details about the raven -- what was told to the Queen and her reaction and thoughts about it.
I did not like some of Julia's thinking and actions, for example. Reddy is her brother's friend. Reddy comes to Julia to talk about something, but Julia won't even listen to why he came. She sends him away. On more than one occasion, Nicholas tells her something (which is true) but Julia refuses to believe him, is angry, and leaves. If I'm supposed to enjoy a heroine investigating a mystery, I'd prefer she not act stupid. At least consider the possibility that something might be true - especially when she later learns that it is true. However, reviewer Carrie saw this differently. She said "the heroine acted in a believable way throughout. Even her silly mistakes feel like the mistakes of a somewhat sheltered Victorian lady." Here again, we readers do react differently.
I did not like the author's use of gimmicks and inaccurate assumptions to create mystery. Character A plans to poison B. Julia discovers the poison and confronts A. A admits what she was planning, but she doesn't mention B by name. Julia assumes the victim is C (not B), and the rest of the story continues with Julia thinking the wrong victim. A would have told Julia it was B if Julia had simply asked. Both A and Julia assumed the wrong thing. This bothered me. Another gimmicky example I didn't like was toward the end. Julia walks up to the murderer D and tells D she knows D is the murderer. They have a conversation for over six pages, while I was wondering "who is this person she is talking to?" The author doesn't say D's name during this six page conversation. I was frustrated. I waited the whole book to learn who the murderer was and now that Julia knows, I have to wait another six pages?
On the positive:
I enjoyed the writer's style in the beginning of the book where I was in Julia's thoughts as she is living her life and thinking about things. But later in the book, not so much. Things seemed a bit slow.
DATA:
Story length: 431 pages. Swearing language: none. Sexual content: none. Setting: 1886 London. Copyright: 2007. Genre: historical mystery tinted with romance.
Summary of Silent in the Grave
"Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave."These ominous words are the last threat that Sir Edward Grey receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, he collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that her husband was murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers damning evidence for herself, and realizes the truth.
Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.
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