Rating: 5 ♥’s
Published: March 12, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 336
Description: Veronica and Stoker discover that not all fairy tales have happy endings, and some end in murder, in this latest historical mystery from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.
Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why?
Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain—a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Deanna Raybourn does it again! I don’t think I will ever get tired of reading this series they are always so fun to read and I am always sad when it ends. As I say every time, the cover is amazing. This series truly has some of the most amazing covers.
We are back for another adventure with Veronica and Stoker and this one was a crazy one! Nothing like thinking you have a wax figure and then you open it up and bam, not a wax figure but a preserved corpse! It is like mysteries just gravitate towards them, which is good because Veronica can’t be still for long and Stoker can never say no to her, and really we all know he loves a good mystery to solve.
The plot was well written, you get glimpses here and there of past mysteries they have solved and so you get a little background if you are new to the series. It flows really well and it kept the pace up nicely. I always enjoy trying to solve the mystery along with them, and this one I did not solve, it was a nice surprise for me as well. It is nice that not only are you having and adventure and mystery solving, but along with it you still get to see Veronica and Stokers relationship grow and it was nice to see the softer side of Veronica and even the side of Stoker where he lets her be her own woman and doesn’t try to persuade her not to do something, but instead trusts her and doesn’t ant to change her.
The characters of course are amazing, I love Veronica and Stoker, they are one of my favorite couples. Their banter is just really fun to read and they work so well together. I love how Veronica has some great comebacks for things and how she narrates the story, since she is the writer. This one had a nice tamarin monkey that just made me laugh like how it was so attached to Stoker and would give Veronica a distasteful look. In this one we get to see more of J.J. and Moranday, which I really liked. They are great characters as well and I like getting them more involved in the story. We are also introduced to Wilfred who was great, and Spyridon who I hope is in more stories to come because he seems like a fun one.
This series truly never lets me down so I defintiely recommend it, even if you don’t start at the beginning they can be read as a standalone as well. I can’t wait to see what adventures Veronica and Stoker get up to next.
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