A Murderous Relation

A Murderous Relation (2020) Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell)

Set in London in 1888.

Victoria and Stoker are not to get much time to recover from their last adventures, as they are almost immediately asked to call upon Lady Wellie who has some important visitors she wants Victoria and Stoker to help.

But Victoria doesn’t have a lot of interest in helping her father’s family–what with him not acknowledging her existence. But the two end up drawn into the case anyway.

I have apparently forgotten almost everything from the previous books, because I wasn’t keeping straight who was who and what they did and whether Victoria got along with them or not.

Or who Stoker did and didn’t get along with.

Stoker swore a little under his breath, but it was a distinct improvement on their last disagreement, which had ended with a light stabbing.

Which means this probably isn’t a good place to jump into the series.

That isn’t to say there weren’t bits I didn’t enjoy. I liked lots of bits.

“Tiberius, no one has ever looked less like a Briton queen. To begin with, I have no spear or short sword. I have no blue woad for my face. My tunic should be ankle length for this climate, and I will not even begin to discuss the impracticality of leaving one’s hair loose for battle.”

But my big issue is that mystery didn’t work very well for me. Perhaps in the previous books there were hints as to some of the turns the characters here took, but they mostly seemed from out of nowhere to me.

“Character flaws? Good God, man. Do you hear yourself?” (bad guy)demanded. “We are conspiring to commit treason and you have decided that this is the time to worry about character flaws? Of course I have character flaws! I agreed to the cutting of a woman’s throat for this endeavor.

I also found some of the things Stoker did while injured to be rather unbelievable. Even if his life was in danger, he had taken a lot of damage.

And their solution to escaping their predicament is one I thought they should have used FIRST, rather than waiting for the bad guys to come and reveal themselves (and let Stoker get beat up more). It seems like something they would have tried FIRST rather than the ridiculous plans they tried initially.

So, it didn’t work for me as much as the earlier books had.

Publisher: Berkley
Rating: 6.5/10

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