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A Curious Beginning A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Deanna Raybourn 9780451476012 Books

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A Curious Beginning A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Deanna Raybourn 9780451476012 Books

I should say straight off that I loved the Julia Grey books, and was sad when I read on Deanna's blog that the series had come to an end. Unfortunately, this series doesn't hold up quite as well. Though the book was enjoyable enough, the mystery was rather subpar, the backstories often didn't make sense, and I was left unimpressed by Veronica as a character.

I seem to be in the minority, but I didn't particularly like Veronica. I am all for the Amelia Peabody-esque woman who takes charge and flouts convention, but there is a fine line between being a bad*ss and being a jerk. The fact that this book opens with Veronica lamenting the fact that she can't shed a tear over the grave of a woman who adopted her immediately set Veronica in the latter camp for me. She is eye-twitchingly narcissistic, oftentimes rude, and jarringly devoid of empathy. However, what bothered me the most is that even though she is simply the cleverest of all clever Victorian Mary-Sues, she has an appalling lack of critical thinking. I am no stranger to the character who can't figure out what the reader has deduced fifty pages earlier, and normally it doesn't bother me. But it is rather grating going through pages of Veronica bragging about her superior talents in morse code, embalming, and escaping kidnappers when chica can't figure out the obvious, like there *might* be something suspicious about her adopted aunts' habit of changing addresses every six months or that the "robber" that stole nothing and tried pull her into an awaiting carriage might not have been a robber but a would-be abductor. It takes Veronica 3/4 of the book to accept this. It takes a clever reader two pages, a less clever reader three, and the most sleep-deprived and/or intoxicated reader four, where it is helpfully pointed out by a secondary character.

That's not to say that she doesn't have her moments. But they are far and few between. Fortunately, the other characters in the book are much more pleasant. Stoker is your typical dishonorable Honourable with a heart of gold. Other characters were similar tropes, but Raybourn's good dialogue keeps them from being routine.

The second aspect that I didn't like was that the backstories of characters didn't seem to line up well. Veronica is about 24, and yet has visited (off the top of my head) Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Costa Rica, Sumatra, Java, Mexico, Malaysia, Sicily, Corsica, the Rocky Mountains, and South America. I mean, it's technically not impossible, but combined with time back in England to care for both sickly aunts, it just seemed way too unrealistic. Stoker is the same way--he has five different histories (knife thrower, explorer, surgeon, taxonomist, etc) though as he is older and left home at 12, I give him more lee-way to have cultivated an interesting backstory.

Finally, the mystery just wasn't particularly good. An orphan main character in a mystery is bound to have an interesting parent or two. It's just how it works, so the fact that the mystery was centered on this reveal was a letdown. The action scene at the end had a similar "eh" feel, and was based on the laughable premise that bad guys and the police would not immediately rush to a place where they know their intended victim/suspect is, but instead wait several hours because VERONICA ASKED THEY COME AT 9 AND EVEN SENT OUT INVITATIONS, OKAY?

That said, it was a fine enough read and I have hopes that Raybourn will make her follow up better. Plus, the cover art is cool.


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A Curious Beginning A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Deanna Raybourn 9780451476012 Books Reviews

genre historical fiction?
setting England
format standalone
DNF (skimmed to the end)

The beginning (free sample) is well done. However, as was said by some other reviewer, I found the leading lady less and less likable as the story progressed. Her initial presentation is a bit of an odd duck, but from there she becomes progressively prickly and defies convention and her fellow man seemingly compulsively. She seeks oft to shock or offend, which is tiring to read.

The mystery of why she is pursued by murderers is dragged out, then ridiculously over the top when revealed. There simply was not much I can recommend about the plot or characters.

There is no romance between the main characters; and the historical setting seemed more creative re-imagining of history than an actual historical setting. The prose itself was excellent. That almost made up for the rest…but not quite.
Rarely do I leave a negative review. Rarely have I met a more annoying main character or struggled so hard to finish a book. Veronica Speedwell is an unrealistic character for the time but the main problem is how truly overbearing and unlikable she is. Obviously, cast in a modern-day feminist light, I could barely read without rolling my eyes I would have loved her if she'd been more like the original feminists. But we get this Veronica- complete with a rather cold-blooded attitude toward her sex partners. She even refers to them as "playthings". Eye roll. This is what feminism has been reduced to? Not only that, she's offered as a paragon of perfection, with no real character arc. She's exactly the same person at the end of the book as she is at the beginning, except for her feelings for Stoker. Stoker. I wanted to like him. The problem with Stoker is that he's completely cowed by Veronica and that lessens his appeal so much. Love the cover, though.
I should say straight off that I loved the Julia Grey books, and was sad when I read on Deanna's blog that the series had come to an end. Unfortunately, this series doesn't hold up quite as well. Though the book was enjoyable enough, the mystery was rather subpar, the backstories often didn't make sense, and I was left unimpressed by Veronica as a character.

I seem to be in the minority, but I didn't particularly like Veronica. I am all for the Amelia Peabody-esque woman who takes charge and flouts convention, but there is a fine line between being a bad*ss and being a jerk. The fact that this book opens with Veronica lamenting the fact that she can't shed a tear over the grave of a woman who adopted her immediately set Veronica in the latter camp for me. She is eye-twitchingly narcissistic, oftentimes rude, and jarringly devoid of empathy. However, what bothered me the most is that even though she is simply the cleverest of all clever Victorian Mary-Sues, she has an appalling lack of critical thinking. I am no stranger to the character who can't figure out what the reader has deduced fifty pages earlier, and normally it doesn't bother me. But it is rather grating going through pages of Veronica bragging about her superior talents in morse code, embalming, and escaping kidnappers when chica can't figure out the obvious, like there *might* be something suspicious about her adopted aunts' habit of changing addresses every six months or that the "robber" that stole nothing and tried pull her into an awaiting carriage might not have been a robber but a would-be abductor. It takes Veronica 3/4 of the book to accept this. It takes a clever reader two pages, a less clever reader three, and the most sleep-deprived and/or intoxicated reader four, where it is helpfully pointed out by a secondary character.

That's not to say that she doesn't have her moments. But they are far and few between. Fortunately, the other characters in the book are much more pleasant. Stoker is your typical dishonorable Honourable with a heart of gold. Other characters were similar tropes, but Raybourn's good dialogue keeps them from being routine.

The second aspect that I didn't like was that the backstories of characters didn't seem to line up well. Veronica is about 24, and yet has visited (off the top of my head) Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Costa Rica, Sumatra, Java, Mexico, Malaysia, Sicily, Corsica, the Rocky Mountains, and South America. I mean, it's technically not impossible, but combined with time back in England to care for both sickly aunts, it just seemed way too unrealistic. Stoker is the same way--he has five different histories (knife thrower, explorer, surgeon, taxonomist, etc) though as he is older and left home at 12, I give him more lee-way to have cultivated an interesting backstory.

Finally, the mystery just wasn't particularly good. An orphan main character in a mystery is bound to have an interesting parent or two. It's just how it works, so the fact that the mystery was centered on this reveal was a letdown. The action scene at the end had a similar "eh" feel, and was based on the laughable premise that bad guys and the police would not immediately rush to a place where they know their intended victim/suspect is, but instead wait several hours because VERONICA ASKED THEY COME AT 9 AND EVEN SENT OUT INVITATIONS, OKAY?

That said, it was a fine enough read and I have hopes that Raybourn will make her follow up better. Plus, the cover art is cool.