Hey Bookworm friends! As a huge fan of the Veronica Speedwell series, I had been curious about Raybourn’s first historical mystery series. When I heard that the next Speedwell book will be a cross over with Lady Julia Grey, my friend Leslie and I jumped into a buddy read to meet her immediately! Read on for my review of Silent in the Grave.
About Silent in the Grave
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Genre(s): Mystery, Historical Fiction
Series: Lady Julia Grey, #1
Publisher: MIRA Books
Format Read: E-Book
Pub Year: 2006
Cover Artist: Couldn’t find.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal & Chronic Illness
Moderate: Murder, Drug use, Infidelity
Minor (Mention): Racism, Antisemitism
Notes On Diversity
LGBTQIA+ characters,
uses anachronistic but respectful terms for Romani people.
Review
If you love Veronica Speedwell, It’s time to meet Lady Julia Grey!
The story begins during a disastrous dinner party that leaves Lady Julia’s husband dead. Mr. Brisbane, a mysterious detective, approaches her saying he thinks her husband’s death was murder but Julia is affronted and will hear none of it! Fast forward to a year later where she finds a threatening note in her late husband’s things…and she has to come crawling back to Mr. Brisbane begging for help.
“Murder might be an interesting puzzle, but Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all, I mused.”
I had such a fun time with this story because I love the way that it’s split evenly between the characters trying to solve a murder, and their own personal problems. Raybourn balances this so well—whether there’s a new break in the case or Julia is having a moment of growth, I’m glued to the pages. Another thing that this author does so well is setting up the slowest of slow burn romance that builds throughout the series and I’m seeing the beginnings of that here! I see the seeds and I’m excited to watch them bloom in slow motion.
The characters are really fun in this one, especially Lady Julia’s eccentric family. They’re all constantly encouraging her to take risks and do something, anything, foolish while she’s trying desperately to grab on to normalcy and respectability. It was honestly so enjoyable and satisfying to watch her grow into herself; not who her dead husband nor her family wanted her to be but something in the middle.
“Of course, he was absolutely correct, it was no concern of mine. So naturally I thought about it—excessively.”
As for the mystery itself, some of it I guessed but a lot the details and implications I didn’t see coming! I also enjoyed how Lady Julia’s and Mr. Brisbane’s personalities and secrets affected the mystery. Julia is way too trusting and Brisbane is too stubborn and neither of them trusts each other which kind of made for hilarious yet frustrating mix-ups. For a book that touched on a lot of heavy and sensitive topics, it was broken up with lots of almost absurd moments of levity. With a title like ‘Silent in the Grave’ I was expecting the tone of the book to be, well, more grave. But I really enjoyed the humour.
That being said, the ending was quite explosive and poor Lady Julia suffered a lifetime’s worth of trauma in a really short span of time and came out of it a changed woman. I am looking forward to seeing exactly how much in her next adventure! I’m beginning to think I’ll love anything this author writes.
Let’s chat in the comments!
Do you like historical mysteries? What are some of your favourites?
I’ve heard great things about the Veronica Speedwell series but haven’t read any of the books yet! Good to see you’ve enjoyed this series as well, I am a lover of a serious slow burn. Great review 🙂
The Veronica Speedwell series is easily one of my favs and I’m so excited for the new one coming out this year, and the slow burn in that one is absolutely delicious. Thanks so much 🥰!