Fascinating historical mystery | Silent In The Grave

Very enjoyable murder mystery set in Victorian times | Silent In The Grave | Deanna Raybourn

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	• Silent In The Grave Deanna Raybourn Mira, 2007 - 544 pages average customer review:based on 95 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Buy before the new cover!

The first time I read this book through, I read quickly, devouring the plot. The second time, I was delighted to find scrumptious tidbits of wit that I'd missed. Lady Julia's family is amusingly quirky, and her disillusionment with her husband is heartbreaking and realistic. Nicholas Brisbane is wonderful to read about, though I suspect he'd be fatiguing in real life. While Julia quickly discovers her attraction to him, the focus of the book is on Julia's self-discovery rather than the romance.

Which brings me to the point: if you have any intention of buying this book, do it now, while you can get it in the elegant red cover. The author has published the new covers on her website, and they are cheesy and inappropriate for the subject matter and time period. I'm afraid the publishers have seriously misjudged their audience.

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Fascinating historical mystery

I bought this book because Amazon had recommended the 2nd book, Silent in the Sanctuary, and it sounded pretty interesting. Since it was the 2nd book, I bought this one as well so I could read them in the right order.

Plus I read the first 2 sentences online and I was hooked. Despite the fact I was reading something else when this arrived, I put that down so I could read this.

This book was well worth the purchase! The glimpse at upper crust life in the 19th century just made the mystery more enticing. Lady Julia, the sheltered 9th child in a rich but odd family, starts the book by saying that she didn't meet Nicholas Brisbane over her husband's dead body. It should be noted that her husband was still twitching on the floor.

What an opening! And the rest of the book did not disappoint. Lady Julia is fully dimensional, Nicholas Brisbane is appropriately mysterious. The supporting characters (family members and servants, Fleur and Dr Bent) are fleshed out and varied enough to be interesting. I'm hoping that Fleur shows up in the second book, which I am going to start reading as soon as I finish this review.

The attention to detail was fascinating, but never intrusive. The pace was slow, but it moved at the pace it needed to in order to give the right amount of atmosphere without smothering you with it.

Highly recommended.

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Very enjoyable murder mystery set in Victorian times

One of the best opening lines I've read in a long time: "To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor."

How can you resist reading more? Eventually I found the character of Lady Julia a bit too Victorian and self obsessed for my taste (barging in on an obviously sick man, ignoring his health and demanding that the inquiries keep progressing, ) but despite that lull half way through the book, by the end I was hooked again.

This is a very enjoyable murder mystery set in Victorian London with the death of an Earl and his late wife investigating. However the most intriguing character was that of the detective - Nicholas Brisbane. I hope to see more of him, and as the book ended promising a sequel, I'm sure I will. A keeper.

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A fun romp

For anyone looking for serious Victorian literature, in which the narrator or protagonist abides by the actual conventions of the time and acts accordingly, this book is not for you. But if you're looking for a mystery with period flair - the Victorian period to be exact- then I think you'll fall in love with Raybourn's SILENT IN THE GRAVE. The heroine, Lady Julia Grey, is much like Austen's Emma: wealthy, imagines herself as charitable, excitable, etc. When her husband dies of seemingly natural causes, a mysterious man shows up at the funeral and later tells her that her husband has been murdered. Thus begins a light and fun read in which Lady Julia Grey and Mr. Brisbane attempt to discover what happened to her dead husband. Recommended for anyone who likes mysteries, romances and light historical fiction.

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great characters, mediocre mystery

The mystery to me is why I didn't enjoy this more. The author writes very well and the characters are terrific -- Lady Julia Grey (and her family) and Nicholas Brisbane are fascinating, and even minor characters are well drawn and three dimensional. The mystery itself, however, was lame; I'm not very good at prefiguring the culprit, but I spotted this one really early on and never had a red herring or a twist to make me second guess my conclusion, which turned out to be correct. Also, our heroine was often boringly, stultifyingly inactive; whenever Brisbane told her to stay home and be good when he was incapacitated by his mysterious illness -- she DID! What self-respecting heroine stays home and waits for the detective?! That was kind of shocking to me, and made for a boring read. I don't really want to read paragraphs and paragraphs about how the narrator is home, packing boxes or reading or wandering the rooms, waiting for the detective to make something happen. BORING! The plot was inventive in some ways (no spoilers), but tedious in others, and a great many interesting characters were introduced never to be heard from again.

If I could, I'd give it 3+ stars, but I'll round up because I think others may enjoy it more than I did -- I just have such precious little time to read that I want excellence when I do. I want great writing AND great characters AND a great mystery, and I didn't get that here. All in all I found it a frustrating read and won't get another in the series; instead I'll focus on other authors in this genre.

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"Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave."

These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, 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, Sir Edward 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 longstanding physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that Sir Edward has been murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers the damning paper for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring her husband's 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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