Author: Deanna Raybourn
ISBN: 978-0778324102
Pages (hardcover): 512
A Victorian mystery set in London. The book opens with the death of protagonist Lady Julia Grey’s husband, though the majority of the action comes a year later when she realizes that he may have been murdered: she begins to investigate the matter with the help of possible Love Interest and detective Nicholas Brisbane, who has a number of secrets of his own.
Silent in the Grave is very well-written overall, and surprisingly entertaining; up until the last hundred pages I was all prepared to go write a glowing five-star review. But it fails to live up to the expectations set by the beginning of the novel – and, honestly, by the jacket text. A blurb by Karen Harper says it has “one of the most clever endings I’ve seen” (yes, most clever, not cleverest) while Valerie Anand praises “some lovey twists in the plot and a most satisfactory surprise ending.”
That – combined with the quality of the beginning and middle part – led me to expect something truly amazing, which it wasn’t at all. It was more or less an average mystery plot. It was clever, in a way, but also sort of unlikely. The final couple pages in which Julia doesn’t expect to see Nicholas again were particularly annoying, because it was so blatantly obvious that she would in fact do so before the end of the book – it felt like I’d read the same ending dozens of times before.
Still, I don’t want to let my disappointment over “the novel that could have been” make this sound like an awful book. It really isn’t, at all, and I’m looking forward to reading Silent in the Sanctuary, the next volume in the series.