Veronica Speedwell returns in A Sinister Revenge, the eighth thriller in a collection greatest described as Agatha Christie on the planet of Victorian science and pure historical past.
Natural historian and butterfly hunter Veronica has been separated from Stoker, a fellow scientist who had turn out to be her sleuthing accomplice and lover. But Stoker’s brother Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, reunites the couple by giving them a harmful new case to unravel.
In his youth, Tiberius ran with a bunch of college students who known as themselves the Seven Sinners, however then tragedy struck at his household’s Devon property when one member of their celebration died in an unintentional fall whereas making an attempt to assert a fossil from a cliffside. During the next years, two different members additionally met an early demise, and now a threatening letter has Tiberius believing that they could all have been murdered by one of their very own—and that he is likely to be the subsequent sufferer. In a Christie-esque conceit, Tiberius invitations the remaining members of the Seven Sinners to an elaborate home celebration, the place he plans to confront them and, hopefully, the place Veronica and Stoker will uncover the assassin.
As the home celebration unfolds, it turns into obvious that the historical past of the Seven Sinners is extra advanced than Tiberius let on, with secret affairs and bitter jealousies complicating the previous. Even as Veronica untangles the net of advanced relationships, she struggles to reconcile Stoker’s distance from their very own romantic partnership. As ordinary, Veronica’s eager observations and sharp wit distinction together with her personal occasional lack of self-awareness (particularly relating to romance), making for a pleasant learn. Longtime readers of the collection can be happy to see regulars resembling intrepid reporter J.J. Butterworth and ingenious chef Julien d’Orlande return. But finally, Raybourn’s masterful entanglement of Veronica and Stoker’s love story with the thriller at hand makes A Sinister Revenge a standout entry in an already glorious collection.
Discussion about this post