A Ghastly Catastrophe (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery)
This is the tenth book of the Veronica Speedwell mystery series, featuring a sophisticated Victorian heroine equally adept at launching flying kicks off of a headstone as she is making erudite conversation over tea. Her partner (in multiple senses of that word) is a lapsed aristocrat of many talents, including taxidermy, called Stoker. (No relation to author Bram, as the author is obliged to point out in a forenote.)
The mystery begins with a pair of suspicious deaths, one bearing hallmarks of the occult: a corpse drained of blood, with two neat puncture marks on the neck. The trail leads through layers of secrecy, with a pale and ageless man and his spookily macabre companion at the center of it all. Are they indeed a vampire and a witch? Or does their mesmeric hold over the privileged men of a secret society have another explanation?
Not having read the first nine books, I found this one to stand on its own for the most part, though I was confused when a second investigative couple was lavishly introduced and then never heard from again. Readers of Ms. Raybourn’s other historical series will recognize Julia and Nicholas Brisbane in a charming cameo, but I am afraid they had the advantage of me.
The murder plot and its investigation are cleverly told, but the real charm of the book is the luscious conversation between Veronica and Stoker, touching on every possible topic of philosophy, art, and science. These references work as elaborate scenery framing the plot, without distracting from it. One desperately wishes to be invited to a dinner party with these characters, hopefully without taking a turn as the victim in Ms. Raybourn’s next installment.
