The author deftly gave the pacing just the right amount of briskness and made it hard to resist a heroine who constantly flexes her mental muscles, and shows herself to be way-ahead-of-her-time. When the baron is murdered, and Stoker implicated in his death, the two set off to find the baron’s killer and along the way, unlock the truth about Veronica’s birth parents.ĭialogue-driven, I found myself hanging on every word between Stoker and Veronica words which more fully formed their characters. The romantic tension between them adds an extra layer of intrigue. Reclusive for good reason, we later discover.
The baron deposits Veronica with Stoker, a mysterious and reclusive scientist. The baron persuades the cool and clever Veronica to accompany him to London, hinting at ties to her past. Intrigue was promptly introduced in the guise of a kindly, enigmatic German baron who appears during a scuffle between Veronica and an intruder. Instead, she feels a wave of euphoria, anticipating an escape from her former life to travel the world in pursuit of exotic butterflies, an expertise she’s finely honed.Īs the story unfolded, I discovered an independent, highly articulate heroine (she’s a voracious reader). Two such spinsters had been Veronica’s lifelong guardians, yet Veronica is unable to shed a single tear at the funeral. Set in Victorian England, the opening scene introduces a strong-willed, unconventional heroine attending the somber funeral of her remaining spinster aunt. An author new to me, I was very pleasantly surprised. (Sept.Always on the lookout for a read with action, snappy dialogue, and a mystery, I happened upon Deanna Raybourn’s A Curious Beginning. Agent: Pam Hopkins, Hopkins Literary Associates. The intrepid Veronica’s witty narration (“I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea”) and the sexual tension she shares with the equally eccentric and articulate Stoker deliver a fun read with promises of more to come. When the baron is murdered, Veronica and Stoker embark on a journey marked by present perils and past secrets. At the urging of the baron, who warns her that she’s in mortal danger for reasons he can’t yet reveal, she hides at the London home of reclusive natural historian Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane.
After returning home from the funeral of the last of her guardians, Veronica foils an abduction attempt with the assistance of an elderly stranger, Baron Maximilian von Stauffenbach, who remembers the mother Veronica knows nothing about. Set in 1887, this sparkling first in a new Victorian series from bestseller Raybourn ( The Dark Inquiry and four other Lady Julia Grey mysteries) introduces 25-year-old Veronica Speedwell, who as an illegitimate child lived an itinerant existence with two female guardians.
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