A Dangerous Collaboration

October 1, 2018

Posing as the fiancée of colleague Stoker's brother, who wants someone familiar by his side at Lord Malcolm Romilly's house party, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell lands on an island off Cornwall. Sounds glam, but the party guests are all connected to Romilly's wife, Rosamund, who vanished on their wedding day, and things soon get spooky. Fourth in a series after A Treacherous Curse; Raybourn also does the New York Times best-selling Lady Julia Grey series.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2019
An intrepid lepidopterist and her sometime lover are caught up in yet another extravagant adventure in 1888. Returning to London from Madeira, Veronica Speedwell gets the cold shoulder from her companion in mystery solving, Stoker Templeton-Vane (A Treacherous Curse, 2018, etc.), who's still furious that he was left out of the unexplained trip. He's not happy, either, that his elder brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, wants Veronica to accompany him to St. Maddern's Isle off the coast of Cornwall to visit the castle of his old friend Malcolm Romilly, who's promised to give Veronica some larvae of the Romilly Glasswing butterfly, thought to be extinct. What Tiberius doesn't tell Veronica--yet--is that she'll have to pose as his fiancee to gain the approval of their Catholic host, who wouldn't approve of an unchaperoned single woman. Upon their arrival in Cornwall, they find Stoker, refusing to be left out, waiting to join a group that includes Malcolm; his sister, Mertensia, a tireless gardener; his sister-in-law, Helen; her son, Caspian; and a crew of servants directed by longtime family retainer Mrs. Trengrouse. The island is large enough for farms and a village whose superstitious natives tell tales of piskies and mermaids. Stoker and his brother constantly snipe over Veronica, whom Tiberius works to seduce and Stoker secretly wants to marry. Although she loves Stoker, Veronica fears he's never gotten over the dreadful marriage that almost killed him and is so independent herself that she's afraid to commit to more than a physical relationship. Meanwhile, Malcolm's wife, Rosamund, vanished on their wedding day three years ago, and no one knows whether she's dead or alive. When Malcolm's discovery of Rosamund's traveling bag makes it all but certain that she's dead, he asks for Veronica and Stoker's help in finding out what happened to her. Slowly, secrets from the past are revealed, and the sleuths find themselves threatened by someone desperate to keep those secrets buried forever. The astute and unconventional Edwardian pair seem to have entered the pages of a gothic novel for an exhilarating new tale full of wild adventures and treacherous relationships.

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Starred review from January 1, 2019
As anyone familiar with Veronica Speedwell knows, the spirited lepidopterologist only indulges in romantic dalliances when she travels?and only with non-Englishmen. But lately, the sexual tension between Veronica and her colleague, Stoker, has become too much! To escape it, Veronica flees. When she returns six months later, she still finds Stoker irresistible, so she flees again?this time at the invitation of Stoker's brother. In exchange for a rare specimen of butterfly, she agrees to pose as his fianc�e when he visits an old friend, Malcolm Romilly. Stoker, uninvited, joins, and when they arrive, they realize Malcolm Romilly's mansion is haunted by the three-year mystery of his bride, who went missing on their wedding night. Did she commit suicide? Is she in hiding? Was she murdered? Veronica decides to find out, exploring the mansion's most intriguing secrets?hidden passageways, a poison garden, a salaciously illustrated harpsichord. Raybourn's latest mystery is as lively and adventurous as the previous installment (A Treacherous Curse, 2018). Although Veronica's clever, scientific instincts continue to help her decipher clues and read people's motivations, she is more introspective as she sorts out her own feelings, adding vulnerability to an already dynamic heroine. Positively excellent, or?as Veronica would say? Excelsior! (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)