veronica speedwell mystery a curious beginning deanna raybourn

After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry-and the occasional romantic dalliance. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth'. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker-a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

The intrepid Veronica's witty narration ('I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea') and the sexual tension she shares with the equally eccentric and articulate Stoker deliver a fun read with promises of more to come.'London, 1887.

When the baron is murdered, Veronica and Stoker embark on a journey marked by present perils and past secrets. At the urging of the baron, who warns her that she's in mortal danger for reasons he can't yet reveal, she hides at the London home of reclusive natural historian Revelstoke 'Stoker' Templeton-Vane.

After returning home from the funeral of the last of her guardians, Veronica foils an abduction attempt with the assistance of an elderly stranger, Baron Maximilian von Stauffenbach, who remembers the mother Veronica knows nothing about. Set in 1887, this sparkling first in a new Victorian series from bestseller Raybourn (The Dark Inquiry and four other Lady Julia Grey mysteries) introduces 25-year-old Veronica Speedwell, who as an illegitimate child lived an itinerant existence with two female guardians.

Veronica speedwell mystery a curious beginning deanna raybourn