Silent in the Grave: A Victorian Historical Mystery

by Deanna Raybourn

Book Overview

Go back to where it all began with the original Lady Julia Grey historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling author of Killers of a Certain Age, Deanna Raybourn.

"Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave."

These ominous words are the last threat that Sir Edward Grey receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778325245
• ISBN13: 9780778325246
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

An engaging mystery

I had a lot of fun with this novel, the characters are very interesting and the plot was engaging

Great debut

In 1886, Lady Julia Grey's husband dies suddenly of heart disease which runs in his family. His cousin, Simon, is similarly afflicted and not expected to live much longer either. Lady Julia quickly settles into the life of a widow, but then she receives a visit from Nicholas Brisbane, a private detective who tells her that her husband Edward had been getting threatening notes and had hired him shortly before his death to look into the matter. He hints that her husband's death may not have been natural, prompting Julia to begin an investigation that uncovers things about her husband and her life that make her realize she never really knew him -- and herself -- at all. When I picked it up, I was a little leery of beginning a 500+ page book by a first time author, but Ms. Raybourn's writing style is clear and flows well. Her main characters are interesting and well fleshed-out and she fills her story with secondary characters who are strong enough to be main characters in their own books. I loved how Julia moves from wanting a conventional life, in contrast to her wildly eccentric family, to becoming a little more her own person. And I like how Ms. Raybourn does it without making Julia a true eccentric -- just a mite more unconventional than she envisioned herself wanting to be at the beginning of the book. I'll be interested in how her budding romance with the moody, secretive Mr. Brisbane develops. It's a great start to a great series, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

A great new find!

Very nice! One cannot help but fall in love with Lady Julia. The reader is taken down "the rabbit hole" with the lady as she digs deeper into the death of her husband. The farther she falls into the mystery the further she moves from Narrating the volumes of her eccentric family's history to becoming a March heroine in her own right. I thoroughly enjoyed riding along on this voyage of self discovery. The fact that she senses who she is but hasn't discovered her true self nor realized that the clever witty insightful voice she hears in her head isn't just a product of "the eccentric March's" or just the thoughts of a normal woman stifled by a repressive society. But, her's is in fact the voice of a unique, interesting, and intoxicating young woman full of life. I am so glad I found SITG it was a wonderful change of pace that swept me away. I look forward to the next book. Holleigh

Wonderfully written and engaging

Although I don't normally read fiction, historic or otherwise, I could not put down this book. The amount of research put into the writing is quite evident, and kept me turning pages just to read more about a garment or place. The characters speak intelligently to each other, and each has his or her own vice. We don't see the stereotypes I've often read in other historic novels, and Lady Julia even breaks the stereotype of her own family. The last half of the book kept me up until the wee hours, devouring each page and wanting more at the end. I am looking forward to the next book in the series!

A wickedly clever send-up of the Victorian mystery genre

All Lady Julia Grey ever wanted was a normal life. Born into the large March family, all of whom pride themselves on their eccentricities, Julia is something of an oddity: "I had never fought a duel or run away with my footman or ridden a horse naked into Whitehall...I did not even keep a pet monkey or wear turbans or dye my dogs pink. I lived quietly, conventionally, as I had always wanted, and I think I had been something of a disappointment to them." Part of Julia's conventionality is her marriage to her childhood friend and sweetheart, Edward, a gentle, quiet, somewhat frail man. Heart problems run in Edward's family, so when Edward collapses and dies at a party, Julia is saddened but not entirely surprised or at all suspicious. That is, until private investigator Nicholas Brisbane contacts her. It turns out that Edward had received a number of threatening messages in the months leading up to his death, messages that lead Brisbane, and eventually Julia, to acknowledge that Edward's death in fact may have been murder. Almost as soon as she is able to emerge from the required one-year mourning period, Julia throws herself headlong into the search for Edward's killer, frequently butting heads with the enigmatic, endlessly fascinating Brisbane. Along the way, Julia finds herself troublingly, unwillingly, attracted to Brisbane, a man who is in every way the opposite of her late husband: "Brisbane was not at all the sort of man I admired. He was too dark, too tall, too thickly muscled, altogether too much. I preferred a slender, epicene form, with delicately sketched muscles and golden hair. Graceful, aristocratic, like a Renaissance statue. Like Edward." During her investigation, Julia uncovers secrets about Edward, about her own family, even about her servants and about Brisbane himself. Most importantly, though, Julia uncovers hidden elements of her own personality, a strength and intellect she didn't know she possessed, as well as --- just maybe --- her own flair for the unconventional and unexpected. Deanna Raybourn's debut novel is a wickedly clever send-up of the Victorian mystery genre. SILENT IN THE GRAVE explores the darker regions of the Victorian landscape, from the parlors and boudoirs of Julia's aristocratic world to the exotic society of the Gypsies. Grave robbing, prostitution, gambling, absinthe --- even a pet raven --- all contribute to the novel's sensational appeal. Raybourn tempers these dark topics, though, by mixing in plenty of humor. Absurd situations abound (including a truly bizarre murder weapon), and quirky characters verge on caricature. As she leaves her self-imposed cocoon and becomes a woman of the world, Julia's own first-person narrative style gradually develops from unintentionally amusing naïve impressions to more mature --- and at times wickedly funny --- commentaries on the persons and places that surround her. Add to the mix one of the most memorable heroines in recent memory --- a woman who is both c

A bereft inculcation

Deanna Raybourn intimated in her "Acknowledgements" that it took two years to find a publisher for this book. That's surprising, because for a first time author, she has the distinct poise of a seasoned author. I was hooked from the first paragraph, certainly one of the most enticing I've seen in years: "To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor." From those two sentences, I knew that I was in very capable hands. This was more than just a hook, however. These two sentences demonstrate a remarkable clarity of thought, and upon reading them, I not only chuckled but also settled into the book: I knew, beyond question, that I was in capable hands. There's nothing more important for an author than to establish within the very first paragraph that they know exactly what they're doing, that they are in complete control of their story. If we, the reader, don't have that sense - even if we're not consciously aware of it - we will lose interest. While there are certainly tell-tale mystery elements here, it doesn't read like a "whodunit" mystery whatsoever. Raybourn presents her material in such a way that the reader may feel that they're experiencing something entirely new. I can't applaud her loudly enough for this. Her characters are strong, well drawn, free of cliché, and far from the standard cardboard characters we see too often in fiction. Often an author will talk about characters speaking to them. These are characters that we as readers find ourselves drawn to because ultimately they are the most realistic; they appeal to the majority of our senses. I have to imagine that all of the major characters at times caused a cacophony in Raybourn's mind that kept her up into the wee hours of the morning madly working on her manuscript simply to get the voices to be quiet for a time! Lady Julia in the beginning is three things, essentially: a sibling, a daughter, and a wife. She has little to no identity of her own. Within these pages, as she realizes (quickly) that her husband was murdered, she grows to the task of an "investigator", led by the rather harsh hand of Nicholas Brisbane, previously hired by her husband (prior to his death, of course ) to look into some rather disturbing notes he was receiving that heavily implied that his life was in immediate danger. Her relationship with Nicholas is an interesting one, and it never falls into clichés. Thankfully. The ending is a terrific surprise, and even if you guess at certain plot points, and believe you know who the murderer is, you will still find yourself reeling at the end when everything comes together. One more thing - and don't you dare cheat!!! - the last sentence of the book was as satisfying as the first. My only disappointment is that a major publisher didn't pick this up and put a significant marketing campaign behind it, one that, for example, The Thirteenth Tale received