An Historical mystery

I am not a big mystery reader, but I am a pretty big historical fiction reader. So when I saw some reviews of this book floating around it caught my interest enough to give it a shot. I must say I was very happy with the result. I went ahead and ordered the next one in the series.

Silent in the Grave
By: Deanna Raybourn

Write up:

"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 has retained for his protection, he collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests. 

Prepared to accept that Edward's death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that her husband was murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers damning evidence for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward's demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.

This is one of those books that opens with a great line: "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." 

And with these words the reader is pulled right in. But a lot of books that have a nice bang at the beginning, but then rest of the book usually leaves you disappointed. But this was not the case here. I found myself very drawn into the world that Julia lives in, and into the character of Julia. When we meet her it is the night of her husband’s death. We learn that he was always a sickly person, an illness that runs in the family, and had been getting worse by the year, so his death, while shocking, was not unexpected to everyone.  That night Julia meets Brisbane, at the time she just assumed he was another dinner guest who just at the right place and time to help her with the care of her stricken husband. But even then their meeting was strange: neither warm nor friendly. In fact Brisbane looks at her as if she is were the cause of all of the world’s pain at least that is how it appeared to her. But she quickly forgets about him in all the funeral preparations and ceremonies. But she meets him again when he calls on her a week later and drops some news on her that changes here entire world: he informs her that he was hired by her husband because he feared for his life. He had been getting threatening notes and had hired him to investigate the matter.  He also informed her that he was convinced that her husband, despite his long illness, did not die of natural causes and was in fact killed.  Since that the time Julia was not in the right state of mind to listen to these types of charges, and Brisbane's bedside manner left much to be desired and it appeared as if he was accusing her…. She rightfully accused him of bad intentions and kicked him out with the warning not to darken her door step again.

A year passes and while finally cleaning up her husband’s office...she discovers one of the threatening notes Brisbane informed her about and she realizes he was telling the truth. She of course now must get to the bottom of the matter and contacts Brisbane to set of an investigation, which leads to her whole world as she knew it being turned upside down. And to her learning that the husband she thought she knew...was a stranger to her. What I enjoyed most about his novel is that the reader takes this journey with Julia. At the beginning of the Novel Julia lives in a sheltered world. All she knows is her life with her husband and her large and quirky family. She went from the home of her family, to the home of her husband and lived her life in a bubble of her own making. She wanted to live quietly and unnoticed because her family was any but that...but in doing that she lived her life blind to everything around it. She shut her eyes to anything that would make her life anything but ordinary and conventional. It is fitting that for the period before the book really takes off; she is in mourning and wearing blacks and grays...because that is what her life had been up till then. Dull and common, and insular, no color. But when Brisbane comes to her with this news... it like someone splashed color on her life's canvas. She was out investigating and talking to people she did not normally talk to, and noticing things she never bother to notice before. And the reader goes with her... as her world opens up to new things...the reader's sees more of her world as well. And we see, as well as she does, that she had been hiding away for years and the person who was married to, Edward, was not who she thought he was, nor were lots of other people. This book is pretty much the classic coming of age story. Without her husband's death...Julia would never be Julia.

Of course another appeal to the book is Brisbane. He is the classic, dark, brooding, angry hero. He is a mystery from the start, and in the end he is still a mystery....though a fascinating one. His relationship with Julia has a rocky start, but you can see that he is fascinated by her. She claims to be a conventional type person, but he can see she is anything but: she is quirky and rash and probably just a tad bit crazy. And it is plain that appeals to him. Their relationship is almost like an old married couple. She runs off and jumps head first into everything, and he is like the long suffering husband who tries to tame her and talk sense into her. I ‘m sure he is used to things being the other way around.  He acts like he hates it, but really her unpredictability is what he likes most. He is rough and speaks plainly and is surprised by her ability to accept him as he is often. His family history current situation though does not scream: relationship material though. I hated that the end was so bittersweet, but look forward to seeing where their relationship goes.  Given their places in society...it does not look good. But I do like an impossible romance.


Overall this was a mystery and the underlying mystery in this book was very well executed. It was not too predictable. As each clue is dropped and more of Edwards life is shown...the reader is given more clues as to what is really going on. But as with everything else, the reader kind of figures it out with Julia (though there were a few hints). And the final reveal is a bit shocking. Julia finds out that more than a few people in her life were unknown to her...but mainly because she did not want to know in her quest to be dull and normal, she perhaps made herself blind. But it was handled very well, and you kind for feel for the culprit. The time and circumstances of the crime leaves room for understanding. Though the crime itself is still horrible.  Another thing I liked was that there was plenty of character development...so each character while you may not like...you understand. This was the case for the murderer. You may not understand the crime, but the motive is easy to grasp. But overall, this was a quick and nice read and look forward to further adventures from Lady Julia.

Overall grade: A-