Stoker is a man, as Veronica concludes, with a “mind full of secrets and sorrows”, a painful, violent past, an estranged family.

Veronica’s first thought upon meeting Stoker is “Hephaestus at his forge”. Once Stoker growls and snarls, only a tad friendlier than Huxley, his bull dog, sparks fly and, to Raybourn’s credit, flicker, sparkle, and burn bright, depending on the poignancy, or comedy of Veronica and Stoker’s scenes. But Veronica lives by the rule never to take an English lover. She is nonplussed when Aunt Nell’s Wren Cottage is ransacked and finds herself in the protective hands of the kindly, mysterious Baron Maximilian von Stauffenbach.The Baron travels with her to London and leaves her in the protective custody of his friend Stoker, a taxidermist with a workshop on London’s docks, whose robust musculature, piratical eye-patch, blue eyes, and wild Beethovenian black hair stir Veronica’s womanly desires. Veronica is irrepressible and intrepid: a world-adventuring lepidopterist, sexually uninhibited, no-nonsense, and fiercely independent. Miss Veronica Speedwell, 25, buries her Aunt Nell Harbottle in Little Byfield, England. Set in Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Year, Raybourn’s murder mystery leaves behind the distancing characterization of Lady Julia and Brisbane to revel in an endearing heroine and hero, poignant back stories, humour and, dare Miss Bates say it, sentiment. And then … this … Raybourn’s new historical mystery series, with a delightful dose of romance, the début Veronica Speedwell mystery, A Curious Beginning. Her quibble remains: long on long-winded mystery, short on romance. She enjoyed Lady J.’s cool, independent demeanor and was in love with Nicholas Brisbane, Julia’s sometime-partner, occasional-antagonist, at -long-last husband, enigma-in-an-alpha-hero. Set in Victorian era England, the acclaimed series has been optioned as a UK television series by TV.As Miss Bates discussed elsewhere, she was a fan of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey mysteries. Her first published novel, Silent in the Grave, was nominated for the Agatha Award for best new mystery of 2007. She graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio where she majored in English and History. Raybourn was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but now lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. RITA Award for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elementsĭeanna Raybourn (born June 17, 1968) is an American author of historical fiction and historical mysteries.

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn