Date Published: January 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2492-8
Victorian Mystery
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Recuperating from nearly dying in the horrific house fire caused by her husband, Edward’s murderer, Lady Julia Grey has gone to Italy. There with her brothers, Plum and Lysander she has recovered and begun to enjoy life again. Tempestuous Violante, Lysander’s bride is an interesting diversion as is her friend Alessandro. When a summons arrives from their father insisting they return home post haste, the March siblings, with bride and friend in tow, head for England. Arriving at the family home at Bellmont Abbey Julia encounters the one person she never thought to see again. Even more numbing is that Nicholas Brisbane has arrived with his finance, a flighty girl named Charlotte King.
Julia cannot help herself—she dislikes Charlotte on sight. No, Julia knows that Brisbane is the last man she could and should want. He is arrogant, enigmatic and too in charge, especially with her new found freedom and sense of self. Charlotte is giddy, flighty and too Dresden doll perfect for Julia’s peace of mind. Unable to help herself she watches Nicholas with his fiancé and shortly tells him Charlotte is most certainly not the woman for him.
Upon her arrival at Bellmont Abbey she learns the true reason for the summons home. Her cousin is about to be married, at the Abbey, and her father wishes all the family there for the celebration. Well, at least it’s the true meaning her father will tell Julia, Lysander and Plum. When a guest is found murdered in the sanctuary, reasons upon reasons for the call home unfold, not the least of which was an attempt on her father’s life. With someone posing as a ghost, liberally poisoning guests and pets, Julia and Nicholas must once again join together to solve the crime before someone else meets their demise.
I had no sooner finished SILENT IN THE GRAVE for the second time before I was eagerly reaching for SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY, the second of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey mysteries. I had already picked up SILENT ON THE MOOR, the third in the series and had hungrily perused Ms. Raybourn’s website to see when a fourth book would be available. Sad to say there’s not a word about it and while re-reading the first three will be fine, I want more. The push and pull between Nicholas and Julia is that breath holding, toe curling, keep you awake at night kind of romance. Ms. Raybourn certainly knows how to build tension! She is not an author to pick up and start reading the night before you have to go to work—one more chapter turns into ten or eleven more chapters and before you know it you have read the night away. Such was my plight when I started reading SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY on a Wednesday night and had completed my “one more chapter” at the same time Nicholas introduced his fiancé. I was incensed! How could Ms. Raybourn give him a fiancé? A proper Victorian lady, Julia of course would not engage in an illicit affair with him, but oh the dance they do! Just as I caught my breath and was ready to turn out the light murder was done. With a tempting host of suspects—those who you think it might be and those you want it to be, I finally succumbed to sleep only to grab up the book every spare moment throughout the next day.
Ms. Raybourn gifts readers with a family you would like to know and maybe be a part of. Bellmont Abbey is the kind of place you would have loved to run and play in as a child and savor as an adult. Ms. Raybourn doesn’t miss the tiniest detail in depicting the society of the time and knows how to build emotion in the reader while including you in solving the mystery.
Ms. Raybourn has reset the benchmark for me in just what a 5 rating book is. Her Lady Julia mysteries are not simply books to keep, they are ones to re-read over and over because with each telling you see something more to enjoy.
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