*4.5 ( )

2nd in Veronica Speedwell mystery series. Starts a bit slow, but the main characters are entertaining. Good ending. Kirkus: An unconventional 19th-century sleuth and her equally eccentric sidekick uncover dark secrets of the upper class in this sequel to A Curious Beginning (2015).Once Lord Rosemorran, an avid collector of natural wonders, trips over Patricia, his beloved tortoise, his fractured thigh puts paid to the South Seas expedition he?s planned with his resident natural scientists, Veronica Speedwell and the Hon. Revelstoke ?Stoker? Templeton-Vane. So Veronica?s on hand to accept an invitation from Rosemorran?s sister to a society for women and a hush-hush meeting with Princess Louise, Queen Victoria?s daughter. The princess wants Veronica to use her detective skills and her discretion to clear the name of Miles Ramsforth, who will hang for the murder of his mistress, Princess Louise?s artist friend Artemisia, if Veronica doesn?t prove his innocence. If she does, she may be allowed to communicate with her father, HRH the Prince of Wales, who secretly married Veronica?s mother and abandoned them both for a royal bride. Although Veronica agrees to the task and the bait, she has her own reason for meeting the father who won?t and can?t acknowledge her. Trained in self-defense and butterfly collecting, she?s not so independent that she fails to enlist her good friend Stoker to help penetrate the artistic world Artemisia inhabited�and give Stoker the dubious honor of posing in varying states of undress for a statue of Perseus. A visit to Ramsforth?s estate includes a tour of a grotto of forbidden delights, along with a very detailed, very incriminating ledger of all the visitors to the place. Gamboling with Stoker from theater box to funeral parlor to opium den, Veronica finds not only that they?ve been too quick to eliminate a suspect, but that they have more in common than their repressed passion for each other.Although Raybourn?s wit and whimsy veer dangerously close to the twee, you have to admire her self-sufficient heroine, who divides her attention so comfortably between lepidoptery and Victorian sexcapades.

I am so happy that i decied to keep reading this series. I thought seeing these characters again and seeing them on a new advnture was really fun. I think i liked this book a tad less then the frist book but i really loved the story overal. It was a fun fast pace read and thought this book was nice book the followed the fall out from book one. I thought this mystery was hard to predict ad see the end. I am def exctied to read book 3 soon! ( )

I am so happy that i decied to keep reading this series. I thought seeing these characters again and seeing them on a new advnture was really fun. I think i liked this book a tad less then the frist book but i really loved the story overal. It was a fun fast pace read and thought this book was nice book the followed the fall out from book one. I thought this mystery was hard to predict ad see the end. I am def exctied to read book 3 soon! ( )

This is the second in a historical fiction series set in Victorian London and featuring Veronica Speedwell and Revelstoke “Stoker” Templeton-Vane. Victoria is a lepidopterist with an extensive knowledge of butterflies, and Stoker is a taxidermist for large animals. They met improbably after a mysterious German baron who claims to have known Victoria’s mother takes her to seek sanctuary with this friend Stoker; the baron claims someone is trying to kill Victoria and she is in danger.

The baron was then murdered, and Victoria and Stoker teamed up to find out why. The answer was a shocking one that had a great impact on Victoria, who had grown up as an orphan.

Victoria and Stoker continued to work together to investigate crimes. In this book, set in London in 1887, Victoria is invited to the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only club, where a Lady Sundridge asks Victoria to find out who murdered the artist Artemisia. The high society art patron Miles Ramsforth is to be executed soon for the murder, but Lady Sundridge is convinced he is taking the fall for someone else.

Victoria and Stoker must race against time to find the true culprit before Ramsforth faces the hangman’s noose.

Evaluation: I like some aspects of this book, although I find Veronica to be a bit annoying. Her confidence seems more like arrogance, and her aggressive sexuality with no inhibitions or discretion seems a little unlikely for Victorian England. Moreover, I find it hard to fathom that when she is obnoxious and stubborn, this just makes her all the more irresistible to Stoker. Nevertheless, the historical touches are of interest, as are the numerous facts about both the era and about butterflies that the author interweaves into her plots. ( )