{"id":5579,"date":"2024-03-07T06:56:41","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T14:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=5579"},"modified":"2024-03-07T06:56:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T14:56:41","slug":"deanna-raybourn-a-grave-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/deanna-raybourn-a-grave-robbery\/","title":{"rendered":"Deanna Raybourn: A Grave Robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veronica Speedwell #9<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Whether she\u2019s writing suspense or historical fiction, Deanna Raybourn is never anything less than completely entertaining. There\u2019s a magic to the storytelling in her long-running Veronica Speedwell series that suspends time for the reader.\u00a0 In case you don\u2019t know, Veronica is a lepidopterist (studies butterflies), and her partner, Stoker, is a gifted naturalist and expert taxidermist.\u00a0 There are mysteries involved, of course, but these are more adventure stories in the vein of Mrs. Pollifax <\/em>\u00a0or Elizabeth Peters\u2019 Amelia Peabody books, and you, dear reader, can\u2019t help but enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n

Veronica and Stoker are relaxing at home as this outing begins \u2013 they live on the grounds of Lord Rosemorran\u2019s estate, pursuing their paying gig of cataloging his extensive collection of artifacts, art, and just plain oddities.\u00a0 As the book opens, a glass coffin containing a waxwork woman is delivered to their studio.\u00a0 It\u2019s soon followed by Lord Rosemorran\u2019s daughter, Rose, who has requested a wax figure like the \u201cbreathing\u201d Sleeping Beauty she\u2019s seen at Madame Tussaud\u2019s. At the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century, Madame Tussaud\u2019s was a unique and magical place \u2013 and the clockwork gears inside the sleeping beauty seemed miraculous to young Rose.<\/p>\n

On inspection, however, Veronica and Stoker conjecture that the waxwork is probably an anatomical \u201cBeauty.\u201d\u00a0 In the absence of scarce human corpses, such figures were used to teach anatomy and the figures contained a complete set of organs.\u00a0 They send Rose away as they begin their examination, only to find to their horror that the wax beauty is actually a real woman who has somehow been preserved. Naturally, this upsetting discovery only spurs Veronica and Stoker to try and learn who the woman might have been.<\/p>\n

They need reinforcements for such a search, and they call in their old cohorts Mornaday, a policeman, and J.J., an aspiring reporter.\u00a0 As a female reporter J.J. resents being relegated to the fashion beat and Veronica and Stoker have provided many meaty stories for her in past adventures, this book proving to be no exception.<\/p>\n

One of the many joys of these books is the relationship between Veronica and Stoker, which is a truly loving one, ignited by the former’s fearless personality.\u00a0 Despite being a woman in Victorian London, she goes where she wants and does what she pleases, which not surprisingly often leads to trouble.\u00a0 Her present investigation includes a trip on the Necropolis Railway \u2013 a Victorian notion to relieve overcrowded cemeteries.\u00a0 Coffins and the mourners traveled on an underground train to resting places a bit out of London proper, providing quite the atmospheric setting for this adventure.<\/p>\n

The detective work undertaken by Veronica and Stoker is clever and intelligent and requires the couple to call upon and grill a variety of colorful supporting characters.\u00a0 A tale like this needs both a compelling villain and a sympathetic victim, and Raybourn provides them. She\u2019s equally great at pacing a story and builds a relentless momentum that propels her heroic couple forward.\u00a0 As the two of them race ahead to a solution, Veronica thinks to herself: \u201cWe were forty centuries removed from the days when it was necessary to take up a spear to stalk one\u2019s dinner, and yet all the thrill of that atavistic hunt thrummed in my veins.\u201d <\/em>It may thrum in your veins as well, dear reader, as Veronica arms herself with a stiletto and goes forth to Victorian London to settle scores.\u00a0 As she would say, Excelsior!\u00a0 \u00a0— Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veronica Speedwell #9 Whether she\u2019s writing suspense or historical fiction, Deanna Raybourn is never anything less than completely entertaining. There\u2019s a magic to the storytelling in her long-running Veronica Speedwell series that suspends time for the reader.\u00a0 In case you don\u2019t know, Veronica is a lepidopterist (studies butterflies), and her partner, Stoker, is a gifted … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1584,189,757,1585,1276,758,1586],"class_list":["post-5579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-a-grave-robbery","tag-berkley","tag-deanna-raybourn","tag-necropolis-railway","tag-robin-agnew","tag-veronica-speedwell","tag-victorian-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5581,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions\/5581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}